Trip to KoilKonda Fort and Koilsagar Dam :: Weekend Trip from Hyderabad

Traveling in Telangana, around Hyderabad always give a touch to Deccan history,every turn of the roads will tell you something or the other. Even outside of Hyderabad, there lay several historical places that will give you the essence of the great Deccan dynasty. We are going to see one such option available for a one day trip from Hyderabad or weekend gateway from Hyderabad to KoilKonda Fort and Koil Sagar Dam.

Do you want to trek? Or on the other hand, you are simply thinking to begin a trek for an undertaking background? Well, whatever the explanation is, Koil Konda and Koil Sagar offer plenty of trekking spots where you will go through thick forest, rocky slopes and streams en route.

In general how to reach Koilkonda?

By Road

Mahbubnagar is the nearest big town near Koil Konda. You can opt for a private taxi, ola, uber or government buses to reach Mahbubnagar. Government buses regularly run from Hitech city, kacheguda, Faluknama, Secundrabad, etc.

By Train

Indian railway provides a lot of information regarding train timings. You have pick one which suits your timings.

From Mahbubnagar, you can get plenty of options like hired cabs, jeep, autos to Koilkonda.

Koil Konda and Koil Sagar trip planning

This trip was arranged by Ujjal and Mangalika (our friend).

Before heading towards this place, we (my wife and I) had no idea , where we were going. Every visit gave us new experiences, new learning, and more joy. We did not bother much. We wanted a break. So thought to escape for a day to Koil Konda to retreat ourselves.

The travelers:
Ujjal -Behind Alto
Mangalika
Devopriya
Animesh-Behind Ford Figo

Just before going, we got to know the name of the place was Koilkonda. I googled it and found to be a fort. It was worked during the Qutub Shahi Dynasty. You will also see a mini Humpi style fort.

The visiting places are :

• Koil Konda Fort
• Koil Sagar Dam
• Real village life experience
• Anjaneya Swamy temple
• Sri Ramkonda Hills and Lord Ram temple

We started our journey at around noon.
The route was as follows:
TSPA-ORR-Take exit 16(towards RGI airport)-Bangalore route-NH44-Mehbubnagar-Koilkonda fort-Koil Sagar Dam-MehbubNagar-NH44-RGI airport-TSPA

highway. we paid Rs 30 toll to the toll gate of ORR and collected a two-way toll ticket on the Bangalore highway. Cost-Rs 90.
This was the first time, we were traveling towards Mahbubnagar. The Bangalore highway was awesome to drive with excellent four lanes. We took almost 1:30 hrs to reach Mahbubnagar. After Mehbubnagar we took right towards Koilkonda. The road was good.  More we went towards the fort the scenic beauty becomes prominent even at the 43 degrees in full summer on April 31st.

Reaching KoilKonda fort

Koilkonda fort situated on a hilltop of Koilkonda hill. It was a tax collection outpost of the great Qutb shahi dynasty. Not too many people visit this place compared to other destinations of Telangana.

Ujjal asked many people for the correct route. To my surprise, not many locals knew about this place. We had to follow google map and the guidance of very few locals. Finally, we reached the base of the fort.

The tax collection point lost its glory and even locals began to forget it. One more experience, we had. That is locals don’t know much Hindi. I asked them where is the killa? They could not understand. But when asked where is the Koilkonda fort, they showed us the direction.

Few more observations:
Koilkonda was a very remote place of Mahbubnagar hence offered very basic things.
There was nothing called a proper hotel or restaurant. Few tea stalls were available on the road. We did not opt for tea.

People were mostly poor. They were conservative too. So unnecessary exposing or flashy cloths could draw the attention of the locals. All of us were normal and formals. There were no ATM facilities,even petrol bunks did not accept card!!.

Medical shops were available near the Koil Konda bus stop. I had noticed a few doctor’s names in the dispensaries. Also, small puncture shops were available but I did not notice any big garage. I did not notice any hotel or accommodation facilities. From the Koilkonda bus top, we had to take left to reach Koilkonda fort.

KoilKonda Fort

Koilkonda Fort is situated around 150 KM away from Hyderabad. It is 1.5 KM from the Koilkonda market place, 25 KM from Mahbubnagar. Once we took the final turn, we could see a glimpse of the fort. Till the base of the fort, it was motorable so we drove till last. The fort area was vacant. There was plenty of fort’s space available right in front of the base but no systematic parking was available. I just found two good places and parked our cars.

No security guards were available. There was no entry fee. We were up for a guide, who could have explained to us the history, eased the journey with some hidden path used by locals. But we found none!!!.

The Koil Konda fortress, when an outpost of warangle kakatiya’s remaining parts covered up in the thick wilderness till you arrive at the base of the slope. From the bottom, only a piece of the fortification is seen and it doesn’t show up high, But the way really ends up through numerous little slopes and at certain spots, there is just a tight edge to stroll on.

The fort area was empty. We saw that there is nobody else in the sight and we were just 4 persons who were in their adventure to venture the fort. From the base the fortress wall was visible. It was immense. There is a clear way or passage, stairways towards the top of the hill.

At around 3:05 PM we started climbing to the fort on our own. We heard that there were seven gates till we reach to the top. Mangalika and Ujjal had some information about this fort so they started guiding us. There was a clear way leading to the fort. We followed that.

There are 7 gates to the top of the fort. At the main gate or first gate, one will run over an exceptionally overwhelming wide chain lying, which leaves you with numerous questions about its importance. As there is no guide or anyone around, You can not extinguish your insight thirst about it. Other gates are having some iconic symbols of animals. As usual, we could not understand the importance of those.

At the beginning and till the mosque (situated on the hill), the path was beautiful then the actual adventure started. Near the Mosque there were two roads. One went left and one straight. We took the straight one. We left the other road for a future trip.

At this point, there is a mosque, an Idgah and holy pond. You can watch birds catching fishes from the pond. It is not possible to access the pond from the front side due to fencing. There is an Ashurkhana dedicated to Bibi Fatima. It is said that the Hindu and Muslims obey this.

The steps became slippery and the path become narrow. The path to the top is full of bushes some are thorny too.  One misstep may cause serious injury. A stumble would mean a lofty fall with minimal opportunity to endurance. A good trekking shoe was necessary but since I and my wife underestimated the hill thinking Koilkonda would be the same as Golkonda, we trekked with a badminton shoe and a chappal.

In some places, the path became even narrow. We decided that if we were not able to climb, we would sit down and climb. The journey to the hilltop was not as easy as we expected. On top of this, the scorching sun made us dry.

It didn’t take long to understand the troubles of the trip. It was just 20 minutes of ascension when we were gasping and our lungs were battling to siphon oxygen to our heart. Legs become fatigued and connected to themselves to the ground, declining to push ahead.

To hydrate and to pump oxygen we took three breaks in total. The breaks were not so comfortable. Sun god was testing our patience and determination. It was like on top 43degree sun and down the rocks were so hot to sit. Since we were not regular climbers, we took a little more breaks. Finally, with a lot of determination, we reached the top.

The journey was very strenuous and gutsy. The journey was exciting because of pin-drop silence. The fortress was huge enough. One needs to move in any event 1 hour to reach the top.

It was incredibly astonishing to take note of that we didn’t meet any single individual or creature either in the whole fort journey. It truly felt spooky now and again. Just the tweeting of winged animals guaranteed us of the nearness of life around.

As I said earlier, this place was vacant too. No food facilities were available like Golkonda. There were no toilet facilities. We carried our snacks and water bottle.on the top of the Koil Konda, we utilized them.

In the whole journey, we did not come across any people. There was pin-drop silence in the hilltop. Btw, there were two reservoirs, we saw during our journey to the top. From the top, the city looked great. The Koil Sagar view was breathtaking. The hill had plenty to offer. The medical garden, holy water, observing the life down from such a high altitude, grand hilltop made our day.

If you are in a group and have a sleeping bag, I would suggest staying here for a night. Crazy idea but worth exploring. Far far away from hustle bustle life, close to mother nature!!

A request to all my visitor-it is our duty to save mother nature. So just because they do not have any security or cleaner, please don’t throw away plastic bottles, snack packets or other edibles.

Surprisingly, the weather on the top was pleasant. We sat below the statue of the god and started munching our snacks. Vodafone, Airtel, and Jio had excellent connectivity in this area even on the top.

We enjoyed Jio 4G video just to gear up ourselves. We explored some other parts as well. You should not miss the opportunity to see the sunset from here. As we were not expert trekkers, we plan to go climb down.

There is another factor too!. As the place is deserted, with two ladies in the group, we felt vulnerable to an unknown threat. Now it is time to go down. As I said there were no security and light facilities, we planned to climb down early.

The down journey was even scarier. Gravity had played his part. I slipped twice followed by my wife. Ujjal and Mangalike seemed to practice it. They had no problem to climb down.
We finally came down to the base at around 6:00 PM. Due to the security issues, I would suggest visiting the fort in broad daylight.

This time we planned to have some drinks to cool down ourselves. The local stationery shops came to rescue us. The shop keeper understood Hindi replied in Telegu and some English.

Koil Sagar Dam

Next was to head to KoilSagar Dam. Koil Sagar Dam is situated at KoilSagar village of Deverakadra Mandal in Mahbubnagar. The British govt put forward the proposal and work. It was constructed to save the excess water flowing in the Krishna river.

As per wiki, it is a medium-sized irrigation project, constructed in the period of Nizam’s era(1945-1948). The dam was started in 1945 and finally made available for public use in 1956. The total cost for the construction of the dam was 80crores.

The dam was surrounded by seven hills. The local name of the river was peddavagu. The water storage capacity is 60 Million cube meters. It is also having massive pumping facilities with two electric pumps. It was just 10 KM from Koil Konda fort.

There were many roads to go to Sagar. Google was directing us some way. But too much dependency on google might spoil our fun.

So Ujjal asked a shopkeeper and some locals to confirm the route. It was just the opposite route that google directed us. We lost almost 30 mins to find the correct route. Locals were helpful to direct us the route.
The journey to the Koilsagar was fun. The route is via a countryside road. While going to the lake, Sun just dipped behind the jungle filled road. The reddish light made the road even nicer. It was a proper dusk to enjoy.

The road was having everything that made me remember my village, a few, a few, too few people, herds of cows, dusty road and no traffic. One good thing we observed that the bikers glow their light even in the day time. So it became very easy for us to understand who was coming our way.

Thanks to the Telangana government, the roads in these areas were really good except few patches here and there. The journey was really good and we enjoyed our ride.

You can not reach near the pumping station with four-wheelers but if you are going to this place with byke, you can reach here.

We had to climb up around 100+ stairs to reach to the top of the dam to see the beautiful water body. The western stretch of this pleasant reservoir is encompassed by high hills, making it wonderful spot and a treat for eyes during dawn and particularly during nightfall.

As it was summer, the water level was low. The gates were closed. It was a treat to the eye to enjoy the sunset at dusk with the constant flow of water, ripple sound of the water and chirping birds. The area was not vacant. The area was also very cool. This could have been better if they had a boating facility.

I saw a video on Koilsagar on youtube. This was so beautiful:
This was the other side of the dam. I found it on youtube. We saw multiple headlights from this position. In order to explore the real beauty of the koil Sagar, you need to drive down to the other side of the lake. But as it was already dark and we were a little late. We did not opt for this place. Surely, next time we will venture this.

The trail is easy to drive during all seasons except monsoon season. If you happen to visit during monsoon, you need to be careful.

What else you can do in Koil Sagar?

• Lake view camping
• Campfire
• BBQ
• Play games
• Music
• Open-air dinner
• Visit nearby Veerabadhra temple

Return Journey to Hyderabad

Now it was time to return to Hyderabad. It was dark and hardly we found any people on the road. We had to depend on google map. During our journey, we saw small villages with people chatting in s groups.

In Hyderabad, we hardly see this. The road was via the medium dense forest. The only thing that bothered us that there were many cyclists, bikes even auto with no headlight. They came in the road out of nowhere. We had to drive carefully. After driving for almost 30 minutes, we reached the main road to head towards MehbubNagar.