Completed a Bangalore-Kanchipuram-Madras-Bangalore Trip in last 3 days.
The primary agenda was to visit Kanchipuram and get once in life-time darshan of Athi Varadhar. I don't think we will have energy or health or even we will be alive to see the lord again after 40 years in 2059!
Left Bangalore on Friday 5th July 2019 at 6.30 and reached Kanchipuram at 12 noon including one hour break for breakfast. Road conditions are good as usual and traffic was not much overall till we get close to Kanchi.
After finishing Athi varadhar darshan (felt blessed enough for this life
), from Kanchipuram, on the way to Madras decided to visit Vallakottai Murugan temple, so took right turn at Sriperumbudur, finished darshan at Vallakottai murugan temple darshan and instead of returning back to Sriperumbudur, continued towards Padappai, Vandalur road to took perungalathur by-pass, porur to reach Vadapalani.
For return journey to Bangalore, started from Vadapalani at 7 am today (Sunday 7th July 2019) morning. Given that weekend, the number of vehicles and crowd heading to Kanchipuram was significantly high to see Athi Varadhar. Restaurants were full. Added to that Hyundai shift ended at that time and numerous buses were clogging the road adding big queue in Sriperumbudur Nemili toll. So got slowed till Kanchipuram and then traffic eased a bit. Did a quick darshan at Thiruppukkuzhi temple and again delayed by a big queue of vehicles in chennasamudram toll too.
Post Chennasamudram toll, as i initially planned to take Chittoor route in return journey just to check how the road conditions are, so took right turn towards Ranipet. Here is the road condition details.
TN side:
All the way till TN border after you cross Thiruvalluvar University (which comes on your right) - No change. You still have same good old 2L roads that are in excellent condition.
AP Side:
1) The moment you enter AP, immediately you will see road widening work happening on to your left side and roads are dug up. The existing 2L roads are not touched yet currently till the Bomma Samudram Railway Gate, so the road conditions are still good and drivable. No issues.
2) After you cross the railway gate. the road condition deteriorates as there are no good roads for about 6 kms which will take about 10 to 15 minutes to cross this section in 2nd gear slow driving.
3) After your cross AP RTO commercial check post, the road conditions improve and we get good 2L concrete roads as the other side 2L road is still under construction till you reach Chittoor Collector office and take left towards Bangalore.
4) There are minor deviations between Chittoor Bypass from Collector office till Bangalore-Tirupati bypass exit.
5) Post Bangalore-Tirupati Bypass, 100% completed Excellent Road 4L concrete roads all the way till you hit KA border. All bridges are completed and no deviation at all. Bangalurpalayam, Palamaner are completely bypassed.
Overall, in the 40 kms stretch between Ranipet to Chittoor, about 10 kms of road is where you see the problem which will slow you down. At all other 98% of the time, you get drivable roads either old 2L tar road or the newly laid concrete road (2L)
So What's the Summary and Recommendation in current state?
1) Should you take Bangalore-Chittoor-Ranipet-Madras route instead Hosur route ? - Mostly yes, but strictly in DAY TIME provided you are ready to manage the short distances of under construction roads for ~10 kms, plus usual NH4 truck traffic. Recommended for North and East Bangalore people, because instead of going via Ejipura-Koramangala-Madiwala Inner ring road bridge construction traffic jams, Silk board traffic jams, EC to Attibelle mad traffic followed by Attibelle toll, crazy Hosur traffic etc, you are really better off to take this small pain then the big pain and still drive 40 kms more and pay higher tolls.
2) Is Night Drive Recommended? - Strictly NO at this time, probably till end of 2019 or till the road work completes. There are NO diversion indication at all in majority of the places. Its extremely dangerous to drive in this route now after dark. Please completely avoid it if you are leaving Bangalore post 3 pm.
3) Should people heading to Tirupati from Bangalore can take this route? Definitely Yes as all the work till Chittoor bypass is completed. It saves a lot of time. However, do remember that the other side road construction in Bangalore-Tirupati by-pass is actively going on along with Puttalapattu-Tirupati road constructions. So again please avoid after dark drive even in this stretch for safety.
4) Do we have sufficient break stops now, as in the past we had complaints of not so good stop points? Many New food courts are being built and are coming up. So we do get modern and decent break points in this stretch too.
Tidbit: Those who remember the good old Nandi Food Plaza (official KSRTC stop) after Bangarupalayam town with cow shed and nice chikki sales shop, please see pictures of new avatar of Nandi Food Plaza with newly built restaurant, modern & clean toilets. Though this new construction not exactly in same location as earlier, but the transformation has happened. Old is gone and new is in.
Attaching few snaps from today's trip to get a feel of road construction work, how concrete roads are built and the new Nandi Food Plaza.
-Ravi