[mazda4life]

Originally Posted by MCR

Mandya bypass is now open for traffic. Bangalore-Mysore should be bliss to drive going forward.

I don't stay in India currently but did the BLR-MYS travel very frequently, very heartening to see this expressway being completed and kudos to the young MP who ensured that this important artery being commissioned and using social media for communicating the progress.

[shankar.balan]

Used the Expressway today. Solo drive in my Gypsy to Nilgiris.
Hopped onto it via the city at 0525.
Happily bye passed all the snarls.
All the little towns including Mandya.
There are 3-4 deviations where the construction is still happening. I still believe it will take atleast till end April for the entire expressway to be opened in full.
However, I hit the Swad restaurant Mysore Ooty Columbia signal at 0652.
Overall traffic was light.
Most people barring very few, were very polite about lane discipline.
A few light free lorries and all as always.
But overall a perfect drive. Always 80-90-100kmph max. The Gypsy is super!

[goandude]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

.
Happily bye passed all the snarls.
All the little towns including Mandya.
There are 3-4 deviations where the construction is still happening. !

Great news. This was the biggest time loss diversion. The other 3/4 diversions are quite OK except for some really stupid speed breakers on them.

[Rajeevraj]

Some nice drone shots in this video.

https://youtu.be/mnJkQuYO_hU

[androdev]

Can this expressway be used to reach Srirangapatna railway station?

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by androdev

Can this expressway be used to reach Srirangapatna railway station?

From Bangalore? Yes, you can. Need to make sure you exit before the Srirangapatna bypass start and go into the town area.

[vsrivatsa]

Looks like the Srirangapatna Bypass also completed now: Link

Droneman's Video

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

From Bangalore? Yes, you can. Need to make sure you exit before the Srirangapatna bypass start and go into the town area.

Good to note. So At all the important towns we have exits so that if anyone want to get on to internal SH, it should be possible.

[thirugata]

Do we have an exit to KRS road that connects to Yeluwala from Srirangapatna from this express highway?

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by thirugata

Do we have an exit to KRS road that connects to Yeluwala from Srirangapatna from this express highway?

No. You will need to exit before Srirangapatna bypass entry, or alternatively go all the way to Columbia asia , take a u turn and then come back on the service road without entering the expressway.

[anandhsub]

Took the expressway on 26th en route to Bandipur. Probably the worst drive of my life so far.

Was supposed to be a leisure trip and hence started late around 7 AM and reached Kamat Lokaruchi by 8:45 AM. Started from there at 10 AM and it took 3 hours to hit Columbia Asia.

Was stuck in standstill traffic at every diversion. Vehicles were travelling on the wrong side pretty much all through the expressway and then cutting in whenever there was an opening, adding to the traffic.

Returned to Bangalore today and was an extremely peaceful drive. Started at ~3:45 pm, and hit NICE road at 5:15 pm. Took the Tumkur Road exit as google maps showed heavy traffic on the electronic city stretch and hit KR Puram by 6:30 PM. Less than 3 hours from Columbia Asia to KR Puram is quite a decent time saving.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

Took the expressway on 26th en route to Bandipur. Probably the worst drive of my life so far.

While the expressway is great to drive, I would suggest folks should still stick to first principles. viz. early rise, early start etc. The usual tactics to avoid traffic.

I dont think one can chose to make bad to a good. But a good can definitely be made better! Especially a ride on such popular roads on national holidays!

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

Took the expressway on 26th en route to Bandipur. Probably the worst drive of my life so far.

Jan 26th witnessed crazy chaos on expressway towards Mysore. The primary reason being hurriedly opening Mandya bypass without proper planning. The intersection where the Mandya bypass joins the old highway was the bottle neck. The 6 lane traffic was converging to 1-2 lane while exiting the bypass. And many people took the e.way for granted and started taking u-turn and returning on the wrong way and doing all kind of circus on the road. This was the reason for mayhem on that day.

[binand]

Today's Hindu:

Srirangapatna bypass opens for traffic

Also says that with this, they have achieved completion of all greenfield sections of the expressway.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by binand

Today's Hindu:

Srirangapatna bypass opens for traffic

Also says that with this, they have achieved completion of all greenfield sections of the expressway.

I used the Expressway this afternoon returning from the Nilgiris in the Gypsy.
Reached Columbia Asia junction at about 1245pm.
Hopped onto the Expressway.
There are around 3 relatively small deviations. We did go over Srirangapatnam and there was a part before Mandya where we went off for a couple of km and went back on. But the deviations have bad speed breakers and can cause damage to the unwary driver.
Traffic was normal. People seem much better behaved on the Expressway now. As a matter of principle and for safety I never go beyond 90kmph in the Gypsy on the Expressway. And I stay in the middle or left lane only except if it becomes necessary to overtake.
There was one biker and his wife in helmets but a kid in the middle without a helmet. And there were two or three cars en route with silly kids sticking their silly heads out of the sunroofs. Much luck to them!
I exited the Expressway at the 4 head Ganesha. And entered NICE Road at 217pm.
NICE has major work going on so traffic was crawling but still it was moving.
There is still work to be done on that Expressway. And I am not sure they will complete everything before April. Let us hope for the best!
Saying all this, it is a big boon overall. No more Pandavapura, Srirangapatnam, Mandya, Maddur, Channapatna, Ramanagaram, Bidadi etc. Thank Heaven!
But very soon they will have to do something about the bottlenecks at the entry to Mysore Ring Road from the Ooty/ Coorg/ Kabini direction and at the Columbia Asia junction before the Expressway. And the potential bottleneck at the Bangalore end where there is merging traffic. Even the Mysore ring road has two or three poorly managed signals, Uttarahalli and Alanahalli and so on.
The two pics attached show the Columbia junction and one of the deviations.