Yahoo! Maps India Edition with Driving Directions launched recently. To my mind, this is the best thing that has happened to the Indian roadways system since Sher Shah Suri built the Grand Trunk Road back in the 16th century.
I did a quick sanity check to get a map from my house in Calcutta to Howrah station and was pleasantly surprised to get a pretty accurate direction.
One of the things that I really liked was pointing out nearby landmarks, exactly as one 
would say while giving verbal directions ”You will find a State Bank of India to your left”. This is great on Indian roads, especially if you are traveling by public transport.
I can really see this helping out a lot of tourists.
While this is not dead accurate as yet, I am sure in a year this is going to be way much better. I saw a few weird spellings and some not-so-quite-right pinpointing of locations. 
In the same breath, I must say I was majorly impressed to see Keyatala (right spelling) get mapped onto Kayatala (spelling on map, incorrect, but the location is right).
Oh and one nasty gotcha ! Autorickshaws don’t ply on meter in Kolkata (unlike a cab), they go in a shuttle-mode, between two fixed points (like a bus). So, the fare is irrelevant. You won’t get an “auto” from Naktala to Howrah.
Political incorrectness, Web 2.0 style
Bang on the main page, you find this map.
After a long time I saw, what I would consider an independent entity (not RSS 
draw out a map of India which essentially ignores the Pak-occupied-Kashmir and the Line-of-Control. While this will go down well with most Indians, I am sure our neighbouring country will have a few words to say.
5 responses so far ↓
1 driving direction » Yahoo! Maps India with Driving Directions // Oct 29, 2007 at 10:13 am
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2 Dips // Oct 30, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Hi!
so many details to add a comment has usually deterred me. but ah well! WTH.
Sharodiyo Shubheccha first of all.
And its interesting to note that u are from Naktola. Im from Ranikuthi, u see.
and yeah y! maps seems to have jumped over Google here.
For now.
3 Piyush Gupta // Oct 31, 2007 at 12:45 am
Hey Buddy, It was nice to read this line:
“…this is the best thing that has happened to the Indian roadways system since Sher Shah Suri built…”
Wondering if you have already seen RouteGuru (www.routeguru.com). We pioneered the idea of Driving directions based on landmarks early this year.
However, this analysis may be something you would find related to your interest: http://silicontryst.wordpress.com/2007/10/27/driving-direction-launch-by-yahoo-an-analysis/
4 Arun // Nov 2, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Another cool idea to try out in the driving direction space would be ‘wiki-directions’ - community ‘driven’ driving direction. So if ’shortcut shanmughan’ really knows about shortcuts between place A and B, he can simply mark it up on the map or edit textual directions. Suitability for 2-4 wheelers and other such info can be also be provided. ‘Roadie Rahul’ can add his favourite route as well. ‘Clueless Carmelrams’ will finally find their sheperds
5 admin // Nov 4, 2007 at 6:54 am
Arun,
One thing I wonder about community based driving directions is how people will communicate the direction while driving. Things like SMS-ing on cell phone (while driving) may be even illegal in certain lands. [That's why I am skeptic about socialrouting.com]
An after-event thing like a Wiki is doable, provided people are not tired enough after the trip
I think a couple of things *may* work
a/ panoramic cameras on car, which creates mini-movies, which users can then edit and upload. Preferably augmented by voice. Particularly turns. And cornershops etc.
b/ If the GPS software on cars can itself gather data from the car and trace its own route. Today in some sense it can, if you veer off, it knows. But we need finer granularity and the ability of the software to “store” the path. Actually this may not be very tough. I would not be surprised if some vendors already have this.
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