Driving solo from West to East
The record for covering the maximum distance from the westernmost to the easternmost point in a car by a quadragenarian was set by Viral Chandrashekhar Vyas who drove non-stop from Gujarat to Arunachal.
Viral Chandrashekhar Vyas, a 45 years old auto enthusiast from Vadodara, Gujarat, works with a multinational company. He entered the glorious India Book of Records for ‘covering the maximum distance from the westernmost to the easternmost point in a car by a quadragenarian’. He started the solo drive in the Mahindra XUV300 from Guhar Moti, the westernmost point of India in Gujarat on October 31, 2022, at 6:20 pm and finished at Kibithu, the easternmost point of India in Arunachal Pradesh on November 5, 2022, at 8:23 am, covering the distance of 4037 km in 94 hours and 8 minutes.
Prior to this achievement, he did several road trips to Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab. He had planned a road trip covering all state capitals in 2019, but could not do it due to the pandemic restrictions. He planned the current trip just 15 days earlier. Viral said, “Actually, it was not a well-planned trip in terms of route selection, stoppage, stay, etc. I decided and informed the India Book of Records about my plans. I got a prompt response and was informed about collecting all the proofs on the way, including the video recordings of the trip, GPS tracking data, Toll Tax receipts, selfies at every Toll Plaza, fuel receipts, etc.”
He installed a camera in the car and downloaded various GPS tracking apps. As the trip was from an extreme western point of India (Guhar Moti), he drove from Vadodara to Guhar Moti one day before the trip. Ideally, he should have travelled 3 days before so that he got proper rest but it all happened in a hurry. Guhar Moti is the official extreme western point of India. The last sunset in India also happens at this place. He started the journey after sunset on October 31. From Guhar Moti to Radhanpur, Gujarat the ride was average as the roads were bumpy but after that, the roads were perfect till Bihar.
”I travelled from Guhar Moti to Lucknow via Radhanpur-Jaipur-Agra, and then proceeded on the Purvanchal Expressway. After that, problems arose as the road condition was poor till Muzaffarpur in Bihar. Then I made a mistake. Instead of opting for the highway via Guwahati Bypass, I took a road passing through the Kaziranga National Park, which was narrow and also full of traffic. Google maps took me for a ride in Assam. In the night, I met with an accident damaging my car in Kaziranga National Park. I had to take another car from there to reach Kibithu, Arunachal Pradesh. First Sunrise of India happens there,” said Viral.
He told the India Book of Records magazine, “It was a great trip throughout and I must confess that Arunachal Pradesh is very neat and clean. People there are warm and generous. Indian Army has a good presence from Tezu to Walong and Kibithu. The memorial at Walong and the sunrise in Dong Valley are a must-see.
Another important point was digital payment. I hardly needed cash on the way as the roadside hotels and food joints happily accepted digital payment. Even in Arunachal Pradesh, where there was a network issue, I found most of them accepting digital payments. Luckily I did not face any other issue.”