[bijubalan]

Came to calicut today morning. Did not chose the thamarassery route because of the uncertainties. I was of the impression that only buses are allowed until work completion. Took mysore-handpost-bavali-mananthavady-kutyadi-koyilandi route. Roads were pretty decent. Did in 6.45 hours.

K r puram 4.15 am
Mysore ring road 6.20 am
Hand post 7.20 am
Baavali check post 8.20 am
Mananthavady 8.45 am
Brkfst 45 mins
Koyilandi 11.45 am

So, how was the thamarassey ghats and mysore-gudalur stretch whoever did that?

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by bijubalan

So, how was the thamarassey ghats and mysore-gudalur stretch whoever did that?

Came this way today. Started at 4am from belandur and reached calicut by 12 with 1 hour of breaks. Ironically after all the worries, the churam was a very smooth drive. The patch work seems to be done and there was no work happening. Very little traffic in the whole Kerala stretch and hence was an easy drive.

Mysore nangangud was a little messy with diversions and traffic. But work progressing fast. Rest of it was super good.

[arjithin]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Came this way today. Started at 4am from belandur and reached calicut by 12 with 1 hour of breaks. Ironically after all the worries, the churam was a very smooth drive. The patch work seems to be done and there was no work happening. Very little traffic in the whole Kerala stretch and hence was an easy drive.

Mysore nangangud was a little messy with diversions and traffic. But work progressing fast. Rest of it was super good.

A friend of mine did the same route almost same time.. 4 am Whitefield and 11:20 at Kovoor.

Did you have a mini meet in between?

[binand]

I drove in yesterday in the afternoon. Started at around 3 and arrived in Calicut at 00:15 today. Was in two minds which route to take, but it was nearly 8 when I reached Gundlupet so took the NH 212 route (otherwise dinner would have been a problem and I had three kids with me). Mintflower at Bathery was operating only at one-third capacity since they didn't have sufficient staff; they said 1 hour waiting time to get a table. Moved on and picked one called Jubilee in the middle of the town. Started from Bathery at 9:45 PM and stopped at Adivaram at 11:15 PM for tea. There was work happening on the churam at two different places, with one lane at a time traffic. Didn't lose much time myself, but it was evident this arrangement could lead to long blocks during daytime.

Thorough checking at the KA-KL border by the Excise folks, presumably looking for smugglers trafficking spirit during the holiday season.

The NH 209 route was maddening. Not heavy traffic, but sufficient to lower average speed to 45-50 range. I decided to take this route because there were solid red lines in Mandya and Maddur when I checked.

The bus traffic was picking up at Silk Board; so took the BETL and looped through E-city to get onto NICE road.

NH 212 is quite good except for a short stretch (< 100 m) as soon as one turns right at the edge of Gundlupet town.

NH 209 is quite bad for about 1 km either side of Halaguru town between Kanakapura and Malavally. Otherwise it is all fine.

[arjithin]

CLT to Bangalore riders - please note.
For the non Malayalam speaking population - Road work will be between 10 PM to 6 am for the next 5-6 days. All heavy vehicles (including buses) will not be allowed during this time. Smaller vehicles will be allowed.

This means lot of traffic blocks early morning time when the road block is lifted and potential roadblocks throughout the night.

Edit: second photo says some forest land will be made available for the expansion of that road. Hopefully that will help widen the bottlenecks

[ezee123]

Drove on the Bangalore - Calicut route on 25th via Mysore highway. The traffic at 530 AM was so heavy that it would seem one was in city traffic. This was almost all the way upto Mysore. So there appears to be no safety in an early morning start, specially on a very long weekend coupled with a Xmas holiday.
Mysore to Gundlepet, took the Bye Pass which however gets blocked enroute but took a village route via Hoshangi. The initial stretch of the actual highway is full of road work and a nightmare but after that it is ok all the way.
I had to go only upto Kalpetta and the route was just fine.

On the return journey on 27th December took the Kanakpura highway. some stretches are narrow but the traffic flows quite nicely in comparison to the Mysore route. Definitely more scenic but has lots of turn offs and direction changes.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by ezee123

Drove on the Bangalore - Calicut route on 25th via Mysore highway.

I started at 4 am (3.55 am to be exact) and even at that time there was a good amount of traffic. Not high enough to slow the drive, but high enough to make the drive irritating. Am sure it would have been very bad for a post 6am start.

[bijubalan]

The reason why we did not see much work going on in the thamarassery ghats is that a decision was taken by authorities to halt the work due to technical reasons.The same is going to be restarted from tonight. 28/12 to 01/01. Work will be from 10 pm to 6 am. Heavy vehicles wont be allowed during this time. Smaller vehicles upto 4 wheelers will be allowed all the time. But expect delay as work will be in progress.
- info from kozhikode district collectors fb page.
- https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...88733288030112

[ezee123]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

I started at 4 am (3.55 am to be exact) and even at that time there was a good amount of traffic. Not high enough to slow the drive, but high enough to make the drive irritating. Am sure it would have been very bad for a post 6am start.

My plan was to start at 4 AM as well. Looks like it would not have made any difference. Never in my life have I been a part of highway traffic so bad as it was on the 25th and that after driving for lakhs of kms over the years.

[mpksuhas]

Did Bangalore - Calicut - Bangalore recently.

Onward journey 25 Dec - Plan was to start around 04:00 AM and proceed via Mysore road.
However overslept and was able to start by 05:00 AM only from Bellandur. Reached NICE Road Hosur road entry and got stuck in long queue for around 15 mins, quiet uncommon at this time. So, guessed Mysore road also will be blocked and decided to take Kanakpura road instead. Around 06:15 reached NICE road Kanakpura road exit, thanks to less traffic was able to reach Gundlupet by 08:55 AM. This is the quickest for me still, I usually take 03 hour 15 mins to do this route.

From Gundlupet till Batherry progress was quick, contrary to my perception traffic was high though it was a holiday on account of Christmas. From Thamaraserry till Calicut traffic was less though, reached Calicut at 12:00 PM.

Return journey - 28 Dec - Started from Calicut at 02:30 PM, took around 20 mins to cross Malaparamb signal. Traffic was high till Kalpetta bye-pass. Reached Battherry at 05:30 PM. Took a half hour break and started at 06:00 PM, road work from Bandipur forest gate till Gundlupet is done and was able to reach Gundlupet by 07:00 PM.
Decided to take Kanakpura road again and reached NICE road entry at 10:15 PM. From there took NICE road and reached Bellandur around 10:50 PM.

NH 209 updates:
Road has been resurfaced at multiple places between Mallavalli and Chamarajnagar. However, there are few potholes between Kanakpura and Mallavalli. Though less in count (~ 5), they are bad enough to damage tyre if not noticed. On way back hit one at somewhat high speed, luckily escaped without damaging tyre.

Police checking was ongoing between Chundale and Lakkidi during onward journey. From previous experience I guess it was for PUC papers. Saw few KA vehicles stopped, however they let me pass. Guess since their hands were full.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

NH 209 updates

Did you notice any speed-cams installed in Kanakapura town (and a couple of other towns - Halaguru was one I guess)? I remember seeing some boards written entirely in Kannada script and carrying a camera's sketch - maybe it was a flickering streetlight, maybe not - I remember something flashing at a couple of places. There wasn't any indication of the allowed speed anywhere though.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Did you notice any speed-cams installed in Kanakapura town (and a couple of other towns - Halaguru was one I guess)?

Yes there were few cameras enroute. Multiple cameras in Kanakpura and then between Kanakpura and Bangalore in middle of nowhere they have kept barricades and cameras.
However, I don't think it is speed cameras, they have put barricades before Kanakpura town mentioning "This town is under CCTV surveillance" .

And yes, I there were few flickering street lights. Even I noticed those, its some new LED type lights installed around Kanakpura. Few of them has gone bad and is flickering.

[binand]

My return from Calicut was on Monday (28/12). The only additional point I'd like to add to the existing KB is that there are interceptors on the prowl near Channapatna and Ramanagara. I got fined Rs. 300 for overspeeding. I was doing an even 80 kmph so was prepared to argue the point with the cop, but it seems the limit is 40 kmph on that stretch.

BM Road is terrible as always. I see a collapsible barricade blocking my lane about 200m away; so indicate a switch to the left lane and reduce speed. The Scorpio who was about 50m behind me suddenly accelerates and now I have to brake hard to avoid him and the barricade.

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by binand

I see a collapsible barricade blocking my lane about 200m away; so indicate a switch to the left lane and reduce speed. The Scorpio who was about 50m behind me suddenly accelerates and now I have to brake hard to avoid him and the barricade.

Experienced many such morons on the newly relaid and widened Nanjangud-Gundlupet stretch. There are plenty of such temporary speed barricades on this stretch. The road is very wide and while you slow down to go through the barricade, you could find cars from left, right, and every possible side cutting across to squeeze in. There was one point when I had to give a mouthful to a KL-11 swift . Had to really brake hard to slow down and give him way; absolutely reckless just to get past a small barricade, don't know what hurry these people are in.

[vinesh]

Have to travel from Bangalore on 15th to Tirur and return on 23rd. In a confused state of mind after reading the posts regarding the Bangalore-Mysore road and the ghats work.

keeping my fingers crossed about the ghats opening up at least by then.