[creative420]

What are the food joints available on this expressway? And any good COCO pumps?

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by creative420

What are the food joints available on this expressway? And any good COCO pumps?

Malgudi Vattika, Kadambam, Shivalli, Indraprastha, Empire, Poojari Fish Land etc.

The major ones that are now out of reach are A2B Bidadi, Kamat Lokaruchi, Adigas Maddur.

[condor]

Did a quick trip to Mysore & back today. Toll deducted was 135+70.

Lots of entry points after the toll near the Bangalore end.

Road is good, and many a point I was wondering where's the old road. The long bridge at Bidadi has too many rumble strips. The strips on the south-bound side are ok, but the ones on the north-bound side are a bit too thick. (I was moving some equipment for a dental clinic and hence slowed down to single-digit speeds).

Another bridge (I think before Channapatna) on the north-bound side has 3 sets of strips which are again too thick. More like rattle strips than rumble strips.

NHAI should either reduce the toll or block the entry points after the toll. Every town has open entry points, making a mockery of the toll being collected.

Originally Posted by creative420

What are the food joints available on this expressway? And any good COCO pumps?

As of today, with all these open entry/exits, there are a few places where you can access the food-joints. Fuel - you will need to search a bit. I was low on diesel and hence ended up going into Mandya on the return. Once the expressway has restricted access, one will need to ensure sufficient fuel in the vehicle before entering it - or be prepared to exit into the cities/towns and then re-entering. Since the journey upto Mysore Manipal hospital takes max 1.5 hours, it will help to have food/tea before entering the expressway.

*

On another note, I think the residents of all the cities/towns en-route will be really happy with the expressway being operational. Mandya was so easy to drive in, with all the regular traffic being kept out of the city.

[abhatt]

I drove on this yesterday and enjoyed it. Koramangala to Mysore Zoo was less than 3 hours.

We tried to go to A2B Bidadi for a breakfast but it was temporarily closed. No idea which are some good places to eat on this way. Had gone to Udupi Upahar Bidadi. It was decent however I prefer the more commercial options like A2B.

[vsathyap]

Completed a trip to Mysore and Nanjnagudu over the weekend. The road is excellent - no doubts. However, I felt that ther are too many entry exit points on the road which one needs to keep an eye out for.

For instance, a Baleno swerved suddenly into one of the exits near Maddur and literally took 2 or 3 cars with it. Although we waited 20 mins at the Toll gate after Kengeri (going towards Mysore), we were surprised to see many vehicles coming from over our left and joining the expressway without paying any toll. The toll gates had a tough time reading the fastags and at many gates, the ladies manning the booths were entering data over their cell phones and allowing vehicles to pass thru. This added to a majority of the wait time at the gates. As usual, this pile up caused some cab drivers to cut across gates which caused further clashes and delays.

One thing was common - everyone was driving like the world would end in the next 90 minutes. The so called wannabe SUVs and other psuedo-crossovers looked like their worlds would end in the next 60 minutes. Careless aggressive driving, tailgating, trying to overtake in non existant gaps (I guess they all think they are descendants of the Terminator model T-1000 - ability to squeeze and morph into different shapes) was a common sight.

Overall, a fantastic road, no doubt. Its only the road users who need to stop behaving like gorillas with inflated egos and drive with some empathy and solicitude towards other vehicles.

[dailydriver]

Ninety minutes - that, in the general consensus, is time enough to cover the distance between Bengaluru and Mysuru using the newly inaugurated expressway. Fast and luxurious trains too need about the same time, end to end.

But in the days past, a train journey used to last NINE hours. Recalling his first journey to Mysuru in the year 1887, W L Crawford (Mysoreans - CRAWFORD HALL!) states that the train was run on steam generated by burning wood instead of coal and had to take a break midway to replenish its fuel.



Source: Page 122, Bettadinda Battalige, H L Nagegowda

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by vsathyap

. The road is excellent - no doubts. However, I felt that ther are too many entry exit points on the road which one needs to keep an eye out for.
..Its only the road users who need to stop behaving like gorillas with inflated egos and drive with some empathy and solicitude towards other vehicles.

Agree with all your points.

I too drove down today, given the traffic today you could easily average 100 KMPH. Some of the irritants
- Slow moving vehicles occupying the rightmost lane or middle lane
- An idiot in a Maruti Echo zipping between vehicles at nearly 120 KMPH
(The car was literally bouncing all over)
- People on Honda Activa type 2 wheelers with no helmet on the pillion rider + with kids zooming
- People crossing the road by walk and by 2 wheelers.

[Rajeevraj]

I drove to Calicut on Sunday evening . Driving the expressway after 2-3 months. Only one diversion exists but looks like that is couple of months away from completion. Since it was Sunday evening, there was a fairly big jam at this point towards Bangalore.

The signboards are fairly clear now although there are still a lot of unauthorised/temporary entry exits. As mentioned by several folks, the exit designs could have been much much better. Several exits are sharp U turns into service roads. Have never seen such exits even on our regular highways.

I noticed atleast 2-3 buses broken down on the highway just in this one trip. Looks like bus drivers are also pushing the limits on the highway.

Got into a major jam at manipal signal. Thought it was the effect of the signal becoming a chokepoint, but realised a little late that it was due to 100s of buses ferrying people for a JDS rally in Mysore. Before I realized it, I was stuck on ORR in the midst of these 100s of buses. Totally jammed for almost 1.5 hrs. Somehow managed to take a U turn on ORR, get into the city and get on to Nanjangud road through the city. Thankfully that road was not too jammed. I entered Mysore ORR at 5 and exited the city by 6.45pm. Was lucky to get out when I did. The kind of jam where you can just get stuck for hours and no one can do anything.

The time saved on the expressway gave me enough buffer to still comfortably cross the forest entry by 8.15pm before the 9pm closure.

[srvm]

Toll fare increased in Mysuru highway.
Found this article in today's The Hindu.

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by srvm

Toll fare increased in Mysuru highway.
Found this article in today's The Hindu.

This is ridiculous. Increasing the rate just in about a month. What basis do they do all this and is there no rules and regulations binding these atrocities.

Surprising that they dared to do this now when the election is round the corner.

[Nalin1]

Service roads not open yet?

[Rajeevraj]

Having driven the expressway a few times now and 4 times in the last week alone, thought to list down my thoughts around some of the commonly discussed points.

General comments:

• I think both the road users and the folks from the towns in and around the expressway are getting used to the road now and the access/exits/options. So seeing less instances of random behaviors, wrong side driving etc..
• The congestions at both ends: Have not encountered any so far (apart from the one instance due to the JDS Rally). On Bengaluru side, the opening immediately after the exit has been closed. On the Manipal Mysore end, the signal still causes accumulation, but for folks headed left towards Ring Road, the best option is to exit before the last flyover onto service road and take a free left. There is also currently an unofficial opening in front of Swad Hotel just before the signal, that can also be taken.
• Initial sense is that it is handling peak traffic well. Yesterday I left towards Mysore at 11am. It was a Saturday, start of the summer holiday season and with the older road, I would have taken Kanakpura by default at this time. I took the expressway and although I was expecting it to take longer, even with a good amount of traffic, it still took the same 1 hr 15 min.
• Wayside amenities/lighting/Emergency Support/Lay byes - All seem non existent now. Getting stuck on some of those sections like the 24km Ramanagara-Channapatna byepass is a scary proposition. Hope there are some plans for that.

Exits:

• Exits could have been designed better. No doubt about it. It is strange that they built all this and exits are just quick deviations into service road including U Turn Exits. Very strange design.
• There are exits to the main towns- Bidadi, Ramanagara, Chanapatna, Maddur, Mandya, Srirangapatna. In addition there are several more exits to smaller places/roads that lead to other towns like Pandavapura. I think there are 7-8 such exits also.
• There are now boards that indicate Exit in 500mtr, 300mtr, 100mtr.. So it is fairly easy to understand. Normally such exit signs should be overhead and across the road, this is on the center median. Again seems a non standard approach.
• There are boards now that indicate 'Next exit in xx Km' (Not fully done yet). So this helps understand. Again the issue is that these boards are almost at the current exit. So hard to react if there is a decision to be taken to exit at the current one.
• In general the bypasses are the long stretches with no exits. Ramanagara-Channapatna- 24km, Maddur-10km and then the other bypasses and other sections. Once all the boards are up, exits and distance to them will be clear.

The Tolls-Controversial topic:

• Currently INR 135 for the first half and will be 235-270 for the whole stretch.
• There was controversy when it was announced and started, then a sudden hike made the protest louder and the hike was rolled back. Seems a smart planned move to make people think 135 is now ok and they were able to push back on a hike
• Is the toll worth it? For people commuting shorter distances, locals in the region- Definitely not. NHAI should make sure that the service roads are fully operational for the non toll/short distance traffic.
• For the through commuters - whether it is high or worth it is an individual opinion. In my case, with the expressway, I am getting ~2kmpl better milage which roughly translates into 2-3 liters of fuel saved. So just the fuel savings mostly offset the toll in my case. Not even considering the time saved and the general peace of mind with a better road.

[deehunk]

There were reports about increase in toll for all vehicles, is it now ₹165 for 4 wheelers?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.the...83627.ece/amp/

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by deehunk

There were reports about increase in toll for all vehicles, is it now ₹165 for 4 wheelers?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.the...83627.ece/amp/

They have generously rolled back the hike for another 3 months.
Time for us mango people to feel grateful for the benevolence of our rulers.

/s

[HTC]

Here are my thoughts on the expressway.

I have been using Mysore - Bangalore road since 2004. Have done extensive trips when it was two lane undivided state highway, when 4 lane was under construction ( when SM Krishna was CM I guess),when it got completed, when it got neglected( last few years- with just layer of few centimeters of asphalt was put in a shoddy manner), during expressway construction and now after inauguration of expressway (now NH).

The quality of work done on SH was awesome. We would stop by roadside and see how deep they had laid the foundation for road, layers of concrete etc. The finishing was awesome. Even after 5 years of usage, entire stretch between Mysore and Bangalore was free of potholes. Only exceptions were the deep gashes on road left by broken axels or accident aftermaths. The current express-way is not smooth nor flat. Lot of undulations, no proper banking given at sweeping curves. Narrow bridges and to top it all- used by powerful cars which can touch crazy speeds in a blink of the eye.

Any infrastructure project needs to do research on the impact on people and their business, benefits it brings to people in the area, socio economic conditions of demography, impact on movement of people on either side of highway and many other considerations.

Consider what the two wheeler community lost and gained with this expressway. Now they are forced to use service lanes. Service lanes are not safe, sometimes scary. From service lane to towns and back to service lane there are desolate stretches. This is scary for families to travel at night. I dont think the service lanes will be maintained with high quality.

All they needed to do was to give bypass options for Ramnagara, Channapatna, Maddur, Mandya for the existing SH. These were the bottle necks for traffic. Instead they built almost entire new road forcing people to pay toll.

During peak traffic times(dasara and other festivals) I used to take Kanakapura road and save time. But after dark it always used to be mys-blr road. Also, we could plan the departure so that the journey would take 3.5 hrs from gate to gate with a 40 mins food break. Now it takes 2.5 hours without food break.

I am not against development. But development t should be done in consultation with people. When they planned the project itself, they should have announced the expected toll, 2 wheeler entry rule etc. There could have been some deliberations with local representatives on the impact of this to the people.

Even after implementing toll, they are letting people skip the booths and travel for free. Why??? Everyone know it's because of elections. There are high chances that the people will use express way blockades to get their demands met in future.

Since I mostly ride than driving, I will make peace with kanakapura route till it also gets converted to expressway and bars 2 wheelers from entry.

Between, last week I had to make a emergency trip to mysore at night Since it was 9.30pm already, I stopped at hotel near expressway entry point(after nice road junction), when I was taking reverse to merge to expressway, a person looking like a cop in plainscloth asked me where I'm headed. I told mysore. He asked me to take the service road and merge after the toll. Which I followed (dont judge me pls).
Let me stop my flow of thoughts or rant I would say