You have a Day’s Time or want a short trip in the weekend “Garh Panchkot” can be the best Gateway for people in and around Kolkata.
Reaching Garh Panchkot
You can board train to Asansol, and from there you can get Private Cars/treker/van hired till Garh Panchkot. You can go near “GARH PANCHAKOT ECO TOURISM”
Best suggestion would be if you could reach the place by Private Car. you can take NH 19 and go straight crossing Asansol and take the Asansol-Chittaranjan Route.
(NH19 would have 3-4 Tolls ranging between Rs. 70/- to Rs. 90/- but that would help you reach even faster than the NO TOLLS Road and would save you fuel.)
While crossing Saktigarh, Burdwan you can have your tiffin. A real cool place for snacks. Another place you can choose for your breakfast would be on the Asansol-Chittaranjan Route. From there you would need to go the Asansol-Purulia Road, from where you would be reaching your destination via village roads.
The village roads are narrow but can be drivable unless you are taking a Bus / Traveller.
“Garh Panchkot” is one of the forgotten historical places in West Bengal, India. The ruins of the old forts of Rajas from 10 AD are still present over here.
You can choose to stay for a day in the Garh Panchkot Eco-Tourism, but we choose to return back Home, so we stayed there for about a couple of hours and started journey for our next destination.
The places you can visit over here includes the mesmerizing greenery on the hill. There’s a temple you can view, other than that you can take a uphill walk and would be able to view a narrow stream of waterfall.
You can take photos on the Greenery of Panchet Hill. The best place to visit this place would be Rainy Season or the Springs. The summer are tremendous hot and the winters are chilly cold, also the greenery is mostly visible in Rainy and Spring.
Panchet Dam
From here you can go for the Panchet Dam
The Panchet Dam is like a 30 mins travel from the foothill of Panchet. you can take the narrow village roads and reach your destination while mesmerizing the beauty of the village. Have the place travel completed by evening. The lights on the village roads are pretty low and the roads are narrow with minimum road assistance you can fall on trouble if it gets darker.
This is a Dam on the River Damodar. The last dam to be constructed so far on river Damodar is this dam Panchet. In the year 1959 the 45 metres high and 22,234 ft long dam was constructed across the river Damodar.
You can stay and mesmerize the beauty of the dam. You can stay here for another hour. There would be securities at the beginning and the end of the bridge and photography is strictly prohibited.
Maithon Dam
The famous Maithon Dam is very near to this place, you will just need to go straight from Panchet Dam and cross the NH 19 to reach your destination of Maithon Dam, which won’t take more than another 20 mins.
This place is just in the border of Jharkhand, and there might be restriction, make sure not to cross the Dam until and unless you check and make necessary permissions, there might be requirement of e-pass for your return journey to West Bengal. So my suggestion is to park your car (free parking available) at the beginning of the Dam and take a walk or else there are Police Chowkis where you can ask for help.
The dam is very well maintained and safe, so you can easily have a nice time on the waters along the Hyangla pahar.
This would be a great place for you to even have your lunch. There are many restaurants and hotels also available nearby. So if you are planning for a stay this place can be of your choice too.
You can spend a couple of hours in this place mesmerizing the beauty of Damodar River.
From here you can take the return journey via NH 19. NH 19 is just 15 mins from the Dam, also while in your return journey you can take a turn towards the Kalyaneshwari Temple.
Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions or queries with respect to this place.
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