[haribalram]

Thanks for all the information in this thread to avoid the bad stretches in the Vellore-Sriperumbudur-Chennai sections.

I need to drive from the Bellandur side to West Mambalam & back. Is this a reasonable route?

Thanks in advance.

[sumannandy]

Travelled to Bangalore from Chennai. Started at 5.50 AM and reached Electroics City at 11.50 AM in my EV (including charging stop and breakfast) through usual Vellore - Krishnagiri route. Road from Chennai to Kanchepuram is full of diversion and some nasty potholes, but manageable.

Originally Posted by haribalram

Thanks for all the information in this thread to avoid the bad stretches in the Vellore-Sriperumbudur-Chennai sections.

I need to drive from the Bellandur side to West Mambalam & back. Is this a reasonable route?

Thanks in advance.

I would say drive through usual VELLORE - KANCHEPURM -SRIPERUMPUDUR route. Its not dangerously bad and still the fastest. And you get the convenience of driving through divided road.

[jkrishnakj]

I went back 3-4 pages and some how didn’t find the answer I was looking for.

I need to be at Madras on Tuesday, 24th. Was planning to drive. My meeting is at 1.30 pm at RA Puram, near Teynampet. What’s the best route to enter the city. I plan to leave around 5.30 am and hope to reach between 12-12.45 noon.

[udayjani]

Quick and brief update;

Started from Chennai on Saturday night at 00:10 hours. Up until chennasamundram toll, the roads are in pretty bad shape with diversions every 500 metres. Traffic is slow moving with most of the vehicles either container lorries, trucks or Govt operated buses and very few private cars.

Didn’t notice any private luxury buses during the entire journey ending at Bangalore at 5:00 AM in NH48 route. Google kept alerting until Vellore that NH48 might be closed.

After crossing Vellore, there’s no diversion and the roads are in very good condition with few potholes.

[CArspeed]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

I need to be at Madras on Tuesday, 24th. Was planning to drive. My meeting is at 1.30 pm at RA Puram, near Teynampet. What’s the best route to enter the city. I plan to leave around 5.30 am and hope to reach between 12-12.45 noon.

You can either come via the normal Poonamalle byepass road to enter the city or take a detour from Sunguvarchatram via oragadam-vandalur-Chrompet-Guindy. Both should take you similar time with the latter avoiding some bad sections of NH 48 from Sunguvarchatram to Poonamalle.

[hamster]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

I went back 3-4 pages and some how didn’t find the answer I was looking for.

I need to be at Madras on Tuesday, 24th. Was planning to drive. My meeting is at 1.30 pm at RA Puram, near Teynampet. What’s the best route to enter the city. I plan to leave around 5.30 am and hope to reach between 12-12.45 noon.

With a 05:30 am start reaching by 12-12:30 is easily doable especially on a weekday. You will be mostly entering Chennai after half past 10 mostly, the traffic should ease out by then. For your destination ponnamalle-porur->guindy->saidapet->nandanam->RA Puram would be the straightest and shortest. But there are Metro working going all the way from Poonamalle till Guindy and after that it should be relatively easy.

I think your destination is somewhere in the mid of RAPuram-Alwarpet-Teynampet. There are metro constructions going around Alwarpet. But the diversions are easy you should not face any bottlenecks.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by hamster

With a 05:30 am start reaching by 12-12:30 is easily doable especially on a weekday., the traffic should ease out by then. For your destination ponnamalle-porur->guindy->saidapet->nandanam->RA Puram would be the straightest and shortest.. But the diversions are easy you should not face any bottlenecks.

This is a good suggestion.
Leave at 0500 just to be safe.
Breakfast at Sai Sangeet around Ambur.
Get in via Porur and go to Kathipara Guindy and then straight along into the city. You’ll be well into Madras at noon.
Safe drive!

[jkrishnakj]

Thanks Carspeed, Shankar and Hamster. Appreciate the inputs.

I just got back to Bangalore after a good vacation. I really will have to push myself to wake up at 4 am for a 5 am start, but that’s how it goes. I’ll rather leave a half hour early and be safe.

I’m quite tempted to drive my A6 and am hoping the deviations and the roads after Sriperumputhur aren’t that bad to drive on.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Thanks Carspeed, Shankar and Hamster. Appreciate the inputs.

I’m quite tempted to drive my A6 and am hoping the deviations and the roads after Sriperumputhur aren’t that bad to drive on.

Drive your A6. Just be careful of the potholes and uneven surfaces between Vellore and Madras. Since the road is under construction and they are being agonizingly slow about it, we have to just grin and bear it for now.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Thanks Carspeed, Shankar and Hamster. Appreciate the inputs.

I have simple solution for this problem: Start by 4AM and you would at Arcot A2B by 7 or so. Even a 0730 start would make you get on to Walajabad exit at Sunguvarchatram with minimum impedance. And there on its easy.

[csateesh]

Folks any update on the road conditions between BLR and Chennai

Need to leave only after 12:30pm which could get stretched to 1:30pm !!

Which is the slowest section of this stretch ?

Thanks folks for the update

[haribalram]

I did the Bengaluru-Chennai round trip over the Republic day break.

The road conditions are the best in the following route:

Chennai-Tambaram-Vandalur-Padappai-Kattavakkam (take diversion from the highway into a village, but good road)-Neeravalur (join NH 48)-NH48-Krishnagiri-Hosur-Bengaluru.

350kms in 6.5 hours of unhurried drive for me. Google guided me through this route well. Might not be advisable after dark as the village road stretch (15-16kms) is very lonely.

The other route, through the military road (discussed in this thread) is not advisable at all. Small and broken roads in multiple places.

[senthils27]

Hello,

Did anyone travel to Kanchipuram via walajabad recently? Last year the section between these 2 towns was being widened and worked on. Has this been completed and road in good shape now? I have a travel from Chennai to Kanchipuram via padappai, oragadam highway.

Thanks.

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by venkyhere

Update on the Chennasamudram to Chennai stretch, refer to attached pic.

- Between 2 and 8, latest reports are that it's terrible, the 'main' and 'service road' stretches are all potholed severely by the recent rains from the cyclone(s). I haven't driven this stretch for ages now. So all I know about this, is from second hand accounts.

- Between 1 and 2, there are 'layer off' holes everywhere on the road, but I learn that this stretch is one of the "liveable, not nightmare" stretches of the entire 1 <-> 8 stretch

- Between 2 and 3, it's lunar. Cannot find a position for the car where atleast one of the wheels doesn't fall into a hole.

- Between 3 and 4, where we skirt Kanchipuram town, it's largely good, except a few holes/bumps near the town. This route involves two railway crossings

- Between 4 and 5, it's bad (repair work happening, mud-moundy portions and 'layer off' holes are present, need to be careful.

- Between 5 and 6, it's very good, of course there are 'layer off' holes, but there is enough space around them to avoid after spotting them. One small 'heavily potholed' stretch of 20 meters is there.

- Between 6 (vandalur) and 7 (entry into chennai city) the GST road is not good at all, but it's for a small stretch anyway

- Beyond 8 there is metro work and terrible traffic bottlenecks, beyond 7 there is nothing such, free flowing traffic that gets stuck only at signals.

Update from republic day weekend :

between 4 and 5, there is only one small bridge culvert work pending, rest all bad stretches are fully tarmac-ed. No white lines or markings, so in the dark still need to be careful.

Otherwise all the stretches described above, are in status quo.

Originally Posted by senthils27

Hello,

Did anyone travel to Kanchipuram via walajabad recently? Last year the section between these 2 towns was being widened and worked on. Has this been completed and road in good shape now? I have a travel from Chennai to Kanchipuram via padappai, oragadam highway.

Thanks.

Updated above

[ravib]

CAUTION: For those who are heading towards Hosur/Krishnagiri to Chennai or Salem side, there is a major road roko around Hosur by villagers and traffic piled up for 5 kms, per tamil new channel reports.

Better to avoid Hosur route for today.

-Ravi