So me and my family visited Tirumala last weekend since we had earlier booked an Arjitha Seva for my parents, me and my brother. While parents performed Kalyanotsava, me and my brother were not allowed to accompany them with another ticket and we ended up booking Brahmotsavam which was after theirs. While darshan was pretty neat on a Saturday, there was heavy rains which waterlogged the Tiruchanoor temple and we had to walk through the water to go inside the temple. However thanks to that, there was just no queue and we could walk freely into the temple and out. The 100 rupee entry ticket we had taken was of no use.
Onward we left on Friday in the evening and we returned Sunday evening. Though our darshan got over by Saturday afternoon, we did not want to hurriedly drive back home so stayed there for another night and returned on Sunday.
The route is more or less the same except that there are now barricades occupying half the road to slow down people and this is a really stupid and unsafe thing to do on a narrow national highway.
![Frustration](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Frustration.gif)
Firstly, one should take the government to court for letting such a busy highway stay narrower than an average state highway elsewhere. Upon that, they put speedbreakers without markings and if thats not enough, now there are barricades. This is mainly put up by hotel and other commercial interests. Only one direction of vehicles can happen here and its purely a matter of ego and size to determine who passes first. The buses and trucks dont want to slow down, and the car drivers dont want to give up ego. I used to slow down, crawl in between the gaps left when trucks were passing and that did help to prevent myself from totally coming to a halt.
Thanks to upgraded lights on my SX4, they helped to cut down on high beam morons and spot humps and potholes well in advance. Also, being aggressive(not stupid) during overtakes will help you get ahead and gain a good pace. If not, one will get stuck in a cluster of trucks and cars who dont have a clue on how to overtake. Once I got ahead of a few clusters like these, it was an empty road all to myself.
Road from Bangalore till AP Border is top class but with two such barricades near Mulbagal town bypass but these are not so notorious since this is a wide road. From Chittoor town the road gets better once we take a diversion towards Tirupathi around 10kms from Chittoor. This road has a good shoulder space which can be used by trucks to let faster vehicles pass.
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Originally Posted by sriturl Heard that commercial vehicles (yellow plates) they are very strict, and they may not get to use the ghat for 1 week apart from fine.
Other passenger vehicles, they may ignore first timers. |
I think this is true. The yellow board vehicles especially locals were pretty much sticking to the time and fast ones had stopped before toll on either sides. But while climbing the ghats, my dad was around 10mins early and while getting down, I drove and reached in 29 mins. At the check post, they advised me to be slower next time but did not talk further. I dont know how one can get down that road in a minimum time of 40 minutes. Not like I gunned the pedal down.
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Originally Posted by itwasntme Thank you srituri, suresh_gs & NPV. I will plan and leave early as well as take Chittoor route. One more question: are there any known speed check points on the Chittoor route? Should I slow down (specially) anywhere because of the same? ![Big Grin](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png) |
Please avoid night driving on this stretch if you dont have a good pair of lights and you dont prefer overtaking. The speed checks are in the form of trucks and buses which you will have to overtake. If you do have good lights and like experiencing the acceleration of your car, you will not be complaining but. However, judge your overtaking quite wisely and dont try to do tight passes. There could be other surprises on the road and you just dont have any space on the road as a backup. Not sure how good or bad it might be, but finish most of these overtakes when there are trucks slowed down near speed breakers and the opposite lane is empty. That will give you good space ahead.