My experience from Hyderabad to Kerala Travel
Background --> I might have mentioned in the forum multiple times that , we have been working on this covid pandemic on the grounds of Hyderabad cuity to help the affected people by giving food, medicines, Ambulance, plasma and other needed care in Hyderabad. Because we were on grounds, we knew the ground reality of what was happening there. The Govt has completely gave up and allowed the corporates hospitals to loot people, where on average you may be asked to pay 1.5 lakhs per day and the govt hospitals are like a pig den. Secondly no contact tracing and people are out there so community spread is happening. And along with that my office has announced the mandatory work from home till next year, we thought of moving to Kerala, till either the school gets opened or my office gets opened.
Preparation We wanted to have a good internet connection at home and we found that BSNL is giving FTTH in almost all the nook and corner in Kerala, so enquired about it. And we found out that the connection and maintenance were given to private parties and in my area, it was taken by the employees who got voluntary retirement from BSNL itself and we found them to be very professional. In Hyderabad I have been using FTTH for some time now (since it's inception in Hyderabad ) and I am pretty happy with the overall service. The quality of service is very good. The availability is also very good. I just had one down time in last two years, in that time I had to follow-up for couple of days, but considering two years and couple of days down time, I consider it as a very good service only. We called the BSNL office and the same day they responded back and the next day they have given the connection. I have taken the plan "750 GB CUL", in that monthly rental is 1277 and we get 100 Mbps up to 750GB download. Till now I have been getting 90+ Mbps always.
For the travel, I had to pass 5 states, and other than Telengana for all other states I need to take the passes. As my target state is Kerala, I need to first get the pass from Kerala. My car is a 7 seater, and including my kids and mother, were were 6 occupant , so by default , the portal was not allowing me to register for 6 people. I called the customer care centre for Covid 19 of Kottayam Dt and the response was very good. They recommended me to go ahead with a 10+ seater (for applying for the pass), because we are from the same family. After applying the pass, I got the approval within 2 hours. Now by using this pass I have applied for transit passes for Andhra, Karnataka and Tamilnadu. Andhra and TamilNadu passes I got it on the same day, Karnataka pass, I got it on the next day .
Travel Plan
Planned to start from Hyderabad by lunch time (after lunch) and plan to Reach to Bangalore by night. My sister's house was locked in Bangalore and planned to stay there. Got the prior approval from the management committee of the society to stay there for overnight, with lots of conditions. Start from the next day and reach Kerala by evening. Preferred to travel via Walayar checkpost over Kumily, because during the analysis, we found out that Walayar is more professional and systematic and have a good area as well.
We decided to start by August 8th (Saturday) from Hyderabad and in that week only another flood alert started in Kerala. We were worried as well as my family. We decided to wait till Friday to alter the plan. We were continuously tracking the mausam website from imd
https://mausam.imd.gov.in/imd_latest....php?day=Day_1. With one week's observation of their prediction, we found out that , their prediction is more or less same and on Friday, we found out that the rain will slow down on Saturday and Sunday. So we decided to travel.
The whole travel
The packing --> As we were planning to stay a longer duration in home town, we had a lot of items. Especially small items. In Endeavour, one downside we felt that, for tying bags, there is only one clip available, which was very difficult for us to tie with one seat up.
Bought some dry items like bread , and fruits like Banana for using as mid day meals. (In urgency )
We started at 2:30 PM from Hyderabad. The Shamshabad checkpost was clogged with heavy vehicles, it took 30 minutes to cross that. To add chaos on to this problem, I could see that lot of 4 wheelers cutting the Q and coming in front and merging in to the Q. For people travelling to Bangalore/Kurnool side, my recommendation is to take the airport toll and come to NH. From Shamshabad to Kurnool, the road was with loads of vehicle and as usual, no-one was following the lane, so it took at least 30-45 minutes extra for me
Kunroon Andhra Checkpost Very neatly built new check post. Number of vehicles where very less. They were just noting down the pass number, that is all. There were 3 counters and when we arrived, there were only two cars (Including ours). Only I had to get down.
Bagepally Checkpost It is on the road, but this is too ok maintained. Just had to say to the police officer that I was on transit. (Please mention that to officers, the first statement they made to us was to go and stay in a Q to check the temperature. This is needed for people who are travelling in to Karnataka. ). Please get a pass, else you will be in trouble, in front of us one driver who came without pass was asked to go back to Andhra.
We reached at 10:50 pm in whitefields , stayed overnight there. (Prepared the food for the night and ate ). Woke up in the morning and prepared the food for morning and took parcels for the lunch. (We bought Banana leaves from Hyderabad and parceled the rice in this banana leaves. It was nostalgic too. ). From the Whitefield Shell pump, refilled the fuel. The tankful to tankful mileage was showing as 8.84. To my surprise this is exactly same as my 2.2 manual transmission 4X4 endeavor. (This time my vehicle was 3.2 endeavor). So a note to all the people who are looking for Endeavours, please don't consider 2.2 considering mileage. In City you get 2-3 KM extra, but on highway it is almost same.
Hosur Check Post Tamil Nadu In all the states, I have pasted the pass on to the windshield. In this checkpost they just note it down the pass details from the pass on the windshield and and allowed us to move . I didn't have to get down. But from here on we had to stop in each district entry and had to make entry .. So i had to get down. But there was no rush (Could be because of Sunday ). For Lunch we stopped between Salem and Coimbatore and there are lot of service road with good greenery. Such an isolated place and kids enjoyed the place. The whole road from Hosur to Coimbatore was completely empty ..
A suggestion for people who are taking the Coimbatore bypass, please try to get on to fastag lane, (There are only two lanes, so please get in to the fastag lane -- which is the right lane) , because there are 5 or 6 tolls in this bypass and this will save time for you.
Walayar Check Post Kerala Expected a lot of rush in the checkpost. But to my surprise, there was no-one (literally no-one). Could able to finish all the formalities in 10 minutes. Saying all the details and validating with the pass. Getting a pass for Vehicle. Checking the temperature. Those are all the formalities. Got out from the checkpost .. Now on to Kerala roads. Beautifully maintained roads. But speed guns are there in every 300 meter. And if you get 10 challans , you need to pay all 10 .. So you need to be under 90 KMPH .
After crossing Chalakkudy it started raining heavily and the rain was there till my house. Almost 3 hours of rain.
The best thing I liked, is the administration of the Govt. Just after crossing the checkpost I got a call from health inspector. After an hour I got the call from deputy health inspector. Once we reach home, we got a call from Collector office . From that day onwards everyday we get a call from the PHC and they track the mobile location and they informed the neighbors as well. To my surprise, I got call from counselling centre as well. Very well managed. The PHC staff offered help to get daily consumables too.
Overall a very nice trip. Till today, this was one trip where there was only very little stoppages . In 1200+ KM trip, only two stoppages. (One in Bangalore and another in Salem)