• Jan 25 2016
• Admin
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• Travel

Patratu Valley

Ranchi once was considered as a hill station and back in the golden days there were the rich and famous from Calcutta would travel to Ranchi to improve their health. No doubt Ranchi and its surrounding places have many tourist places but it really can’t be called a hill station any longer. My last statement however is not true when someone visits a place called Patratu Valley (Patratu Ghati) located just around 30 kilometers from Ranchi Railways Station (Ranchi Junction).

For an avid traveler like me even I had initially refused to believe the locals when they had told me about this place and compared it to a hill station. Last October (2023) I went for an extended weekend drive from Kolkata and drove my four-wheeler this time my first halt was Ranchi and from there planned to cover some nearby places. Somewhat reluctantly I decided to check out Patratu Valley entered the destination on the navigation app and started my drive towards Patratu.

The traffic around the main Ranchi town was chaotic as usual, please do not be alarmed if traffic signals are non-existent and traffic rules are more of an assumed thought and rarely followed. Adding to the misery was Durga Puja time numerous pandals were covering a significant portion of the main road and traffic was diverted to the other lane making it a painfully slow drive.

This however did not last long and once out of the main city area the traffic significantly reduced and very soon, I was cruising on almost empty roads. The road to Patratu Valley cuts across several horticultural farms thus do check out the roadside vendors selling flower saplings and other gardening materials.

Soon the surrounding view started changing and I could see the hill range in the distance, the weather also became significantly cooler. The roads instead of being straight started having multiple turns and this signaled the starting of Patratu Valley.