Packers and Movers from Mumbai to Kolkata

From the Arabian Sea to the Hooghly

The fastest road route on OpenStreetMap climbs out of the Mumbai region onto the Deccan and then runs east through Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand before reaching West Bengal. The longest single highway on it is NH53, for about 620 km. NH49 accounts for roughly 350 km and NH16 for about 110 km, with other roads making up the rest.

Mehkar, in Maharashtra's Buldhana district, comes up at about 470 km. Dongargarh in Chhattisgarh, known for its hilltop temple, lies near the route at around 950 km, and Deogarh in the forested hills of western Odisha is at roughly 1,420 km. The country changes a lot on the way, from black-soil cotton land in Vidarbha to the rice plains of Chhattisgarh, then wooded hills in Odisha and finally the flat, green delta around Kolkata.

How 22 hours of driving turns into a week

Pure driving time is about 22 hours, and no loaded truck does that in one go. The driver covers it over several days with night halts, and heavy vehicles are slow on the hill sections in western Odisha. Then there are the two ends, a full day of packing and loading in Mumbai and a wait on the Kolkata side until goods vehicles are let into the city. Put together, 6–9 days door to door is a realistic plan. These are the things that push it towards the longer end.

• A shared truck waiting in Mumbai until it's full enough to leave.
• Goods being moved between vehicles at a transit point, which some part-load services do on routes this long.
• Heavy monsoon rain in Odisha, or a cyclone warning along the Bengal coast.
• Durga Puja week, when getting into Kolkata and parking near homes both get harder.

Plan your own travel so you land in Kolkata a day before the truck's expected date, not the day it leaves Mumbai. And pack a proper suitcase, because you'll be living out of it for the better part of a week.

Is a shared truck worth it over 1,890 km?

Only if the load is small and your dates are loose. Sharing brings the price down a lot at this distance, but the truck can take days to fill, may deliver to other customers along the way, and your cartons get handled around other people's more than once. For a single room or a hostel move, that's often fine.

For a family home, a dedicated truck is the safer call. It leaves when your loading is done, doesn't stop to unload anyone else, and apart from a roadside check nobody opens it until your new address. Over most of a week on the road, that means far fewer chances for a carton to go astray or a dining table to be restacked. If you want the load sealed as well, ask about the Trucking Cube, where you keep the keys.

Papers, tolls and a car heading east

• E-way bill. Used household effects moving with a family aren't normally covered by the e-way bill rules. Across five states, though, the truck may be stopped more than once, so the driver keeps your signed inventory, an ID copy and the Kolkata address in the cabin.
• Tolls. The truck pays tolls on NH53, NH49 and NH16 through its FASTag as it goes.
• Your car. About 22 hours of driving means several long days at the wheel, so most people send the car on a carrier with RC, insurance and PUC copies. Staying in West Bengal for good means re-registering it there in time, or a BH series number if you're eligible.
• A flat that isn't ready. If your Kolkata home won't be free when the truck arrives, goods can go into storage instead of waiting on a truck.

Heat in the middle, cyclones at the end

April to June is the hard stretch. Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh are among the hottest parts of India then, and several days in a closed truck will soften candles, melt chocolates and spoil medicines, so keep those in your own bags. The monsoon reaches Mumbai first, in early June, and brings heavy rain to Odisha's hills and to Kolkata from about July to September.

The Bay of Bengal adds a risk the western routes don't have. Cyclones tend to form in May and again in October and November, and a warning for coastal Odisha or West Bengal can hold trucks for a day or two. Spring also brings kalbaishakhi, the sudden evening storms of April and May in Bengal. November to February is the most comfortable window, as long as you keep clear of Durga Puja, when much of Kolkata is given over to pandals.

At the Mumbai and Kolkata ends

The road east leaves Mumbai on the Thane side, so a pickup in Thane, Kalyan or Bhiwandi spares the truck the slow cross-city run that a Colaba or Bandra loading can't avoid. Long-haul trucks for this route are large, and older buildings in the island city usually need a smaller vehicle to shuttle goods out to them. For society permissions and lift slots, see our Mumbai page.

At the other end, trucks from the west come in through Howrah, so your goods still have to cross the Hooghly before reaching Salt Lake, New Town or south Kolkata. Since goods vehicles can only use much of the city at set hours, unloading is often planned for the evening or early next morning. Lots of Kolkata homes are older walk-ups, so tell us the floor and how wide the staircase is before the truck leaves Mumbai. Our Kolkata page goes deeper into the city's buildings and entry rules.

See the full Mumbai to Kolkata charges breakdown