Skoda Kylaq 10 States in 24 Hours Challenge - All in a Day's Work

How far can you travel by road in India in 24 hours? And we’re not talking about going around a track or zipping up and down a select few expressways to rack up kilometres for the record books. No – we’re talking real India. Well, that’s what we set out to explore in a unique road-trip challenge: cover 10 states in 24 hours!

At first, the idea sounded almost too easy. But as we began mapping the route for this challenge, we quickly realised that this was no cakewalk. You see, India may have 28 states and 8 union territories, but with over 3.2 million square kilometres of land, it’s difficult to explore our country in a lifetime, let alone a day. Not to mention, the road infrastructure varies wildly and, then, there is the diverse landscape of our country – you have everything here, from snow-capped Himalayas to dense forests and coastal plains. Getting a true taste of the entirety of India in just a day seemed impossible. But, then, nobody can stop you from trying, no?

In what turned out to be an ultimate endurance test – both for man and machine – we embarked on a non-stop 24-hour road trip from the foothills of the Himalayas in the northern state of Uttarakhand and aimed to finish in the Gangetic plains of West Bengal. We mapped out the route carefully to ensure that we cover a total of 10 states – Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. A distance in excess of 1,600km. All in a day’s drive!

Since we wanted this road trip to be as realistic as possible, we chose the Skoda Kylaq AT as our steed for this relentless journey. Why, you ask? You see, with its impeccable driving dynamics, potent 1.0 TSI motor, and effortless automatic transmission, along with its excellent ground clearance and practicality, it was the ideal choice for this challenge. That said, the Kylaq wasn’t going to have it easy. As the ultimate test of its endurance, we decided to keep the engine running for the entire 24 hours, non-stop! And just to make sure that we didn’t turn it off accidentally, we covered & taped the start / stop button. The only time the Kylaq was allowed a breather was during fuel stops and driver swaps.

Speaking of the drivers, we had Aakash, Karan, and Shivank on rotation – eight hours each. The goal was to have fun driving the Kylaq during this challenge instead of making it a matter of life-and-death.

With everything in place, we reached Dehradun a day before the start of our ambitious challenge. The next day, at the crack of dawn at 6am, we cranked the Kylaq’s TSI motor and set the wheels rolling!

The Early Bird: 06:00 – 14:00

States Covered: UK, HP, Haryana, UP, Delhi
Words: Aakash S Pau

My journey started from Dehradun, Uttarakhand, at 6am sharp. The initial stretch took me through narrow city streets, past the famous Forest Research Institute (FRI) and the Indian Military Academy (IMA). Soon after, the road gave way to winding mountain sections as I made my way into the second state on our list – Himachal Pradesh – passing the well-known Gurudwara Paonta Sahib along the way. Roughly 30 kilometres later, I crossed into Haryana and was surprised to discover hills in this part of the state. And not just hills, in fact, but a wildlife sanctuary and even a national park. It wasn’t the Haryana I expected...

As much as the scenery caught me off guard, I felt lucky to drive through these picturesque stretches, surrounded by nature, in the early hours. There was a stillness to the moment – a sense of calm that outweighed the urgency of the task at hand. But once that feeling had settled in, I turned my focus back on the road. The hilly sections were easy to manage, thanks to the Kylaq’s communicative steering response and pothole-swallowing suspension. That said, our average speed remained modest, as we were careful to stick to the prescribed speed limits.

I crossed into the fourth state, Uttar Pradesh that is, after crossing the famous Hathini Kund barrage in Haryana. From here on, our progress was smooth but not exactly swift, thanks to inconsistent road conditions between Saharanpur and Meerut. Fortunately, we made up for the lost time as soon as we hit the Delhi-Meerut Expressway. Our average speed went up by a whopping 30km/h, with the Kylaq now cruising comfortably at 100km/h.

Thankfully, traffic inside Delhi wasn’t too bad either, and getting out of the city turned out to be just as seamless. The original plan was for me to hand the car over to Karan near the Rajasthan border at 2pm, after completing my 8-hour driving shift. But we were running slightly behind schedule. As a result, my time behind the wheel got over just as we crossed the Mathura exit on the Yamuna Expressway. To save some time, I was able to successfully plan the driver swap to coincide with a refuelling stop. That way, we wouldn’t lose any extra time changing drivers. That said, the fuel stop itself ate up a good 20 – 25 minutes, as the station was packed, which was not surprising, given it was the only fuel station after a gap of nearly 100 kilometres. With Karan behind the wheel now, I moved to our support car – and took the opportunity to get some much-needed shut-eye.

The Mad Rush: 14:00 – 22:00

States Covered: Rajasthan, MP
Words: Karan Mathur

A journey that began in the hills of Uttarakhand and ended in the picturesque landscapes of West Bengal was bound to have spectacular and awe-inspiring vistas, especially during the beginning and end. But the stretch I was assigned was neither scenic nor enjoyable to drive on. I was responsible for the long, flat, and uneventful middle.

My eight-hour work shift began on the Yamuna Expressway just before Agra and ended in Lucknow. Simple enough on paper – except it wasn’t. Why? Because I also had to cover Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, neither of which lies en route to West Bengal. But with a small detour of around 150km, we could tick both off the list.

Our entry into Rajasthan was through the town of Dholpur – a curious little outlier of sorts. With an area of just over 33 square kilometres, it serves as a border line between UP and MP, although officially it’s a part of Rajasthan. The first leg of my journey started off relatively easily. I cruised along at comfortable (and legal) triple-digit speeds on the Yamuna Expressway until it was time to veer off towards the dreaded single-carriageway that leads to Dholpur and Morena (Madhya Pradesh). The moment I made that turn, I wished I were done with this crazy endeavour already. The Sawan Kawad Yatra had brought everything to a standstill. To make things worse, the road between Agra and Dholpur had crumbled into something resembling the surface of Mars, complete with potholes big enough to form river basins.

After we managed to make it past all the chaos, the evening rush set in. Cyclists, pedestrians and entire makeshift markets spilt onto the middle of the road as we passed through small towns en route to Dholpur. What should have been a little over an hour’s journey took more than two hours. The next stop was Morena – just 30-odd kilometres away – and we reached there fairly quickly. We crossed the famous Chambal Bridge on the way, although I couldn’t see much, for it was raining cats and dogs the entire time.

The most challenging part of my journey was yet to come – the stretch between Morena and Etawah. As the sun proceeded to disappear behind the horizon, the roads didn’t just get crowded with traffic – they got overrun with cattle. Every few minutes, a herd of cows would wander onto the road, making it nearly impossible to keep a consistent pace. From Etawah, we had two options to reach Varanasi – one via Lucknow and the other via Kanpur and Prayagraj. The latter was about 60 kilometres shorter, but the former promised an expressway. After some back-and-forth on the walkie-talkie with Shivank and Aakash, we decided to take the fast and flowing Lucknow route, and it paid off. The 200-kilometre stretch from Etawah to Lucknow flew by in just over two hours, with an average speed of about 100km/h.

We hit the outskirts of Lucknow around 10pm, and it was time for a quick refuel and a driver swap. I jumped out of the driving seat, for it was Shivank’s turn to take the wheel. We were behind schedule, no doubt about it. But like they say – never say never...

The Graveyard Shift: 22:00 – 06:00

States Covered: Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal
Words: Shivank Bhatt

Mine was the graveyard shift, which meant that I was the one to burn the proverbial midnight oil in the Kylaq on this ambitious journey. What made it even more intense was the fact that this was the most crucial leg of the trip – the make-or-break stretch, if you will. Just to be clear, I had never driven the UP-Bihar-Jharkhand-West-Bengal route before. So, it was a bit like shooting in the dark. I relied solely on Google Maps and the team’s instinct to navigate our way. But, then, that precisely was the whole point. This wasn’t meant to be a carefully choreographed expedition – it was always supposed to be a raw, organic, and take-it-as-it-comes kind of adventure. And isn’t that what road trips are all about

At exactly 10pm, I literally pulled Karan out of the driver’s seat and took the wheel. Now, it’s worth noting that by this point, we were already running nearly two hours behind schedule. You see, our plan was to make the last driver swap at Varanasi, but because of the constant delays, the swap happened nearly 300km earlier in Lucknow.

To make matters worse, we hit a heavy truck jam on the outer ring road of Lucknow – the result of a rainy Sunday night. Anyhow, once out of Lucknow, we decided to take the stunning six-lane Purvanchal Expressway. Even in complete darkness, I was comfortably averaging 120km/h (speed limit) on this stretch. What also helped us was the Kylaq’s stellar high-speed stability and brilliant headlamps.

I was racking up miles at the maximum permitted speed quite comfortably. For a moment, it even seemed like we were back on schedule. But that illusion shattered quickly. After just 150km or so, we had to exit the expressway to take the state highway towards Varanasi, and that’s when our pace took a significant hit. To give you an idea, I managed to cover the first 150-odd km on the expressway in 1 hour and 20 minutes, but the next 150km took me two-and-a-half hours.

The internal roads leading to Varanasi weren’t in good nick. On top of that, it began to pour heavily. And blinding high-beams from oncoming traffic and stretches of standing water made things further worse.

We bypassed Varanasi around 2am and crossed into Bihar – the 8th state on our list – by 3am. Our final destination, the border town of Kulti (West Bengal), was still roughly 400km away. To make it in 24 hours, we’d have to average 125km/h from here on out. Even a miracle wouldn’t have made it happen.

My biggest worry, though, was whether we’d even make it to the 9th State by 6am. You see, the road network in Bihar was a bit of a head-scratcher. You have 10km of smooth six-lane expressway, but then it suddenly vanishes, and you’re airborne! It’s like going from a racetrack to a rally stage within the blink of an eye. I couldn’t stop thanking the Kylaq’s robust suspension for gobbling up those brutal jumps.

When we started from the Bihar border, the Jharkhand border was around 200km away. Google Maps showed that we would reach there at 7am, but I wasn’t going to settle for that. I was wide awake and tried everything in my capacity to increase the average speed. The problem was that every gain was short-lived – we’d make up ground only to lose precious minutes to endless diversions and lumbering truck traffic.

Thankfully, the last 50km of the journey to Jharkhand was smooth sailing, meaning I was now gunning for glory with the Kylaq. Did we make it? With just three minutes to spare, at 5:57am, we entered Jharkhand. I know this sounds a bit Bollywood, but it is what it is. After 24 hours, we had covered a total distance of 1,452km, doing an average speed of 61km/h. Impressively, the Kylaq returned a fuel efficiency of 12.6km/l. That’s remarkable considering it wasn’t driven sedately at any point in time during the trip!

But it wasn’t the end of the road for the Kylaq, or us for that matter. The West Bengal border was still around 200 km away, and while we had missed the 24-hour mark, we weren’t about to quit. After a quick break for a few much-needed chai shots, we pushed on towards our final destination – the town of Kulti, known for its colossal coal mines.

To our surprise, Jharkhand’s road network turned out to be excellent. What’s more, the drive to West Bengal was quite scenic. Hills flanked us on both sides, painting a picture we never expected to see in this part of the country. Mountains in Jharkhand? A total surprise for us.

That said, the weather still wasn’t on our side, as it was raining heavily again. The nearby regions were even under flood warnings. Even so, we finally made it to the border at around 8:50am – nearly three hours past our deadline. A little disheartening, sure, but it hardly compared to the fun we had and the experiences we had along the way. At the end of the day, we’re only human. And given the road conditions, relentless weather, traffic, and even livestock we had to contend with, just making it to the finish line felt like an achievement.

As for our machine? It didn’t just make it – it nailed it. We pushed it for 24 hours non-stop, and it delivered without breaking a sweat. We’ve always been fans of Skoda’s engineering, but this journey with the Kylaq has turned us into full-blown cheerleaders of sorts. Nature threw everything it had at us during the drive, and the Kylaq came through with flying colours. In fact, we loved the drive so much that, despite being dead tired by the end, none of us opted to fly back. Every single person chose to drive back in the Kylaq. It may be the smallest Skoda in the line-up, but after this drive, we can say with confidence that the best things do really come in small packages...