[ravib]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

Hello guys,

Driving down to Coimbatore from Bangalore on the 31st morning on a Nexon and a Crysta. Only four people and a lot of luggage.

Which is the best route currently? The Hosur road or the Mysore route? Time does not matter, only the road conditions and food options.

Are there any Shell or Nayara or Reliance or COCO bunks on the Mysore route?

Restaurants for both breakfast and lunch?

Many posts a few months ago talk about diversions due to construction on the Hosur route. Is it still the same?

Since you mentioned Road conditions and Food options matter, eyes closed take Hosur- Salem-Bhavani-Avinashi route.

That serves your need for both breakfast and lunch.

Yes there are few diversions around Hosur, but that's not a strong reason to take Mysore route where you don't get much options for food beyond Mysore.

-Ravi

[NSN]

Hosur route will be good all through six lane 4 lane and 4 lane roads. Hosur road flyover construction is going on but diversion roads are well laid. This will be faster.

[vignesh.cv]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

Which is the best route currently? The Hosur road or the Mysore route? Time does not matter, only the road conditions and food options.

Restaurants for both breakfast and lunch?

Many posts a few months ago talk about diversions due to construction on the Hosur route. Is it still the same?

Suggest the Hosur route as mentioned above. I recently did Bangalore - Coimbatore and back via the same route and it was peaceful. There are a few flyover construction/maintenance work done but it was not a deal breaker. If you start early around 5:00/5:30am you can make decent time until Salem, take a break and reach Bangalore by lunch time.

[swiftgeorge]

Returned on Sunday evening to Pune from Thrissur. Took the following route as I had meet someone in Mysuru.

Thrissur > Sathyamangalam > Dhimbam > Chamarajanagar > Nanjangud > Mysuru > Srirangapatna > Bellur Cross > Huliyar > Hiriyur > Pune

As mentioned in an earlier post I drive a 2012 Civic, hence good roads with speed breakers made to IRC standards are a must.

I must say the entire section from Thrissur to Hiriyur did not disappoint on account of road conditions except for 2 sections listed below. These 2 lane National Highways go through some very beautiful countryside and make up for an enjoyable drive.

Thankfully Dhimbam Ghats were open and had very little traffic. Other than a few wild boars and a few deer did not encounter any wildlife. Despite several signboards asking travelers not to get out of their vehicles within the wildlife sanctuary, noticed families stopped at a few vantage points within the ghat section to either eat or just take in the views.

Bad road sections:

1) The road section from Bannari approaching Dhimbam Ghat (between where the entry ticket is collected and the actual ghat begins) has some nonstandard speed breakers probably every 100 mtrs, like the Bandipur Sanctuary road. Thanks to limited traffic and diagonal crossing there were limited bottom hits. This is a limitation of the car, the roads otherwise are narrow but excellent.

2) The last 20 kms of NH 150A before Hiriyur are a nightmare for any car except an SUV or an MPV. There are sections where complete paving has been removed and WBM roads are being laid from ground up. The work is on in full swing hence these sections are constantly watered and have huge ruts due to trucks taking a specific path. I had to ask my family to step out and walk while driving on the crests of the rut in slushy conditions. Net result - the car added a few kilos of muck and sat even lower on its suspension and was completely dirty. This followed by the very tall speed breakers within Hiriyur town ensured that all the joy of driving through the beautiful countryside evaporated into anger at myself for putting the car through this.

Statistics:

Here are some statistics for anyone wanting to take this route. Given the pace at which work was ongoing in the last 20 kms leading to Hiriyur I am sure this road would be motorable to any vehicle within the next 8 – 10 months.

Pune to Thrissur via Bangalore, Salem – 1318 KM’s with a total toll of Rs. 2310/-

Pune to Thrissur via Hiriyur, Mysuru, Dhimbam – 1228 KM’s with a total toll of Rs. 1495/-. Do note even though the overall route length between Pune and Thrissur is lesser by 100 KM’s, I did not notice any difference in travel time and fuel consumption. Hiriyur to Thrissur is approximately 547 KM’s. There was very little traffic on this section and one can maintain decent speeds except when passing through numerous towns / villages enroute.

Note to Mods:

Is it possible to create a thread listing out National Highways and separate threads for State Highways so that contributors could update information on each highway. Alternatively, all Team BHP forums can be scrapped for such updates and listed against each highway. Such consolidated information and will be of great help to plan road trips. This information today resides on various threads. I refer to something like IRFCA (Indian Railways Fan Club) which maintains a database of all Indian Railway locos that lists information and in some cases photographs of these locos.

[Nalin1]

Made the to and fro journey through Hosur road.

While on the way, there was a huge jam at the beginning of Thoppur ghat and GMAPS suggested a right turn before Thoppur to avoid the rush. Absolutely no idea where the road would have headed to and where it would have joined.

Anyone has any idea which road it is?

Ignored and proceeded via Thoppur ghat in slow moving traffic for about half an hour. Some road work in progress and that was the reason. Beyond that was a breeze.

On the way back, got stuck near Electronic city on Sunday night after the downpour.

The elevated highway was closed when I reached around 10 p.m. Is it generally closed at the time or was it because of the heavy rain and waterlogging on the expressway? Any idea anyone?

GMAPS suggested taking the Hosa road to reach destination (Old airport road). Probably would have diverted through ORR, Sarjapur, Bellandur.
Again ignored and continued on Hosur road as I am familiar with this route, had no idea on the Hosa road route.

Huge pile up on the road below and after crawling for about an hour, crossed a HUGE 'stream' below the silk board flyover and reached at midnight .

[rajeevsulu]

If you had taken the right before thoppur,it would have taken you via Mettur.

The elevated highway would have been shut because of heavy rain or any work happening there.You would have gone via ORR if you would have followed Gmaps

Cheers

[tatrahumvee]

Hi All

Has any body recently travelled to mettupalayam from Bangalore through Maddur-Malavalli-Kollegala- Dhondeling-Germalam-Dhimbam-Sathyamangalam- Mettupalayam.I am planning a drive on 15th June till Aracode near kotagiri through this route. This route has always been there at the back of my mind and finally i have been able to make time to drive through this route. We are planning to start by 4AM from COX Town in Bangalore and reach the resort Aracode by 1:30PM.

Usually google maps keeps showing the route through Ooty as its shorter but I am skeptical to take the route considering the long weekend rush and long lines at the TN check-post due to the e pass confusions. Can someone give suggestions on whether it will be better take the route through Ooty or Dhimbam-Sathyamangalam till Aracode. Also any breakfast stops suggestions near Kollegala or Dhondeling?

[TonyJames]

Late Road Feedback

Travelled from Kochi to Bengaluru during May 1st Week.

On reaching near Dharmapuri, Google Maps showed Huge Traffic Jam from Krishnagiri to Hosur since it was Sunday.

And suggested to take Dharmapuri - Rayakottai - Hosur Road.

I know the road works are only 50% done but still took a risk to see how it is.

First 40 Kms are fully laned and there were barely anyone in the road.

Then comes the next 50Kms with full of diversions and offroading. But still reached quicker to Hosur.

Might take another 1yr to fully Complete.

[tatrahumvee]

Hello All

I travelled from Bangalore to Aracode on 15th June and returned on 16th june through the Dhondeling-Dhimbham-Mettupalayam route. I must say this is a very scenic route with very sparse amount of traffic. After kollegal a small stretch of road is in a bad condition but the scenery around really makes up for that.After that the road is good all the way till kotagiri. From kotagiri we had to drive close to 40kms to reach our stay, after sholur mattom the roads were not even there in Google maps. Except BSNL there is no network in this route after sholurmattom. Roads are in very bad condition after sholurmattom and its like mild offroading.
Attaching few pics of trip below.

Tana monastry at Dhondeling

Dzogchen Monastry at Dhondeling

Muduvanahalli Betta view near kollegal

Sathyamangalam Tiger reserve entrance and start point of Dhimbam ghats

View from Dhimbam ghats

Tea estates near sholurmattom

View of Bhavani sagar reservoir near kokode estate

Kokode resort

[subbaraomr]

Travelling Bangalore to Guruvayur tomorrow. Would appreciate information on BPCL or HPCL coco pumps on the highway via Salem

[rajeevsulu]

Originally Posted by subbaraomr

Travelling Bangalore to Guruvayur tomorrow. Would appreciate information on BPCL or HPCL coco pumps on the highway via Salem

There are enough and more outlets on the way. Once past Sankagiri,you will find Sankagiri Lorry Owners Association outlets on both sides. They will give you a small discount (not much) and will be well staffed as well.

Cheers

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by subbaraomr

Travelling Bangalore to Guruvayur tomorrow. Would appreciate information on BPCL or HPCL coco pumps on the highway via Salem

There is a BPCL coco behind A2B in Shoolagiri and one along with A2B in Thoppur.

Then there is one on the Perundurai - Avinashi stretch,

https://maps.app.goo.gl/jm8GF3o1kVazLdP47

[TonyJames]

Travelled this weekend from Bangalore to Coimbatore

Started around 7:15 AM to avoid traffic from bengaluru.

Roads between Attibelle to Krishnagiri crossing Hosur is so bad now.

Nearly 5 diversions for bridge constructions. They have cut some Tar on the road to reduce speed.

It took solid 4 hrs to Salem.

Badly want an alternative Rayakottai Hosur road to open quickly.

Google maps showed Rayakottai road as the faster route during my return journey but was not interested to take the risk. As I don't expect much changes in 2 months from my last journey via Rayakottai.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by TonyJames

Badly want an alternative Rayakottai Hosur road to open quickly.

Google maps showed Rayakottai road as the faster route during my return journey but was not interested to take the risk. As I don't expect much changes in 2 months from my last journey via Rayakottai.

Question is how do you come from Rayakottai to Attibele? Do you go via Kelamangalam? If not you should do that.

Once you get off the 4-lane and get into Rayakottai town, then towards Hosur you see a fork. One to Hosur and the other to Kelamangalam. Take the latter and it would directly lead you to the outer bypass which directly leads you to TVS factory.

Also note even the Rayakottai-Kelamangalam is getting 4-laned by the state government. So it's rough. But still it's better than driving via Hosur. However I wont advise this route in the dark. Nice for a daytime drive. It will tire you to some extent. But you can maintain your time.

Yes this 4-lane will definitely be a game changer for Salem connection. However it remains to be seen, how much traffic on Krishnagiri route holds once all the options open up. I mean the Chennai expressway, the 844 and current Hosur highway. So over time we will definitely see lesser traffic on each of these roads.

[TonyJames]

Originally Posted by ampere

Question is how do you come from Rayakottai to Attibele? Do you go via Kelamangalam? If not you should do that.

Once you get off the 4-lane and get into Rayakottai town, then towards Hosur you see a fork. One to Hosur and the other to Kelamangalam. Take the latter and it would directly lead you to the outer bypass which directly leads you to TVS factory.

Also note even the Rayakottai-Kelamangalam is getting 4-laneed by the state government. So it's rough. But still it's better than driving via Hosur. However I wont advise this route in the dark. Nice for a daytime drive. It will tire you to some extent. But you can maintain your time.

Yes this 4-lane will definitely be a game changer for Salem connection. However it remains to be seen, how much traffic on Krishnagiri route holds one all the options open up. I mean the Chennai expressway, the 844 and current Hosur highway. So over time we will definitely see lesser traffic on each of these roads.

I took the road towards Hosur Town and not the Kelamangalam road which joined directly into the town.

I will try this out next time