Driving from India's west to east in 85 hours!

Three young men from Chandigarh claim to have created a world record of the fastest drive from India's western to eastern tip, covering 3,941 km in just 85 hours.

These adventure-loving youngsters - Bhalinder Singh Sangha, 30, Rana Sidhu, 29, and Karanbir Singh Bedi, 27 - covered a distance of approximately 3,941 km from Koteshwar in Gujarat to Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh.

"The previous record is of 119 hours and we have surpassed it by around 34 hours. We had willingly used a recently launched Mahindra Xylo in the journey as we wanted to test a new vehicle on this terrain," Sangha told reporters here Friday.

Sanga is a rally driver and owns an automobile workshop.

"Our original plan was to cover 1,255 km every 24 hours to ensure that we complete the targeted 3,766 km in 90 hours with six-hour breaks thrown in. However, we managed to reach our destination in just 84 hours and 52 minutes and also covered an extra 175 km."

The drive was sponsored by the Mahindra group.

Sidhu, a mountaineer who works with Tech Mahindra, said: "We had done a lot of physical training and practice for nearly six months before starting this expedition. The total cost incurred in this entire trip was Rs.150,000.

"We have submitted all our petrol bills, road maps, recorded data and other details of the journey to the officials of Limca Book of Records and we are expecting our name to feature in the 2010 edition of this book."

"Now we are all geared up to set a new world record of fastest drive from North to South end of the country in the coming months," Sidhu said.

Bedi is a senior correspondent with the automobile magazine Overdrive.

Last updated on Jul 3^rd, 2009 at 15:12 pm IST--IANS