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So says my dad too.he's also stuck in the same jam

Drove back from Guruvayur to Bangalore yesterday. Started around 8am; came through Choondal-kelachary-wadakanchery-pazhayanur-alathur-pollachi-kangayam-perundurai-salem; stopped at Aryas for lunch near perundurai on the highway. The town of pollachi was a nightmare and so was the jam in front of Ashok Leyland at Hosur. Yes, there are still some unannounced hartals in Kerala interior roads with political parties causing nuisance to travellers. Total of 520 km; including lunch 9 hours; a good 1.45hrs from Hosur to my place (precisely 20 km)!! Roads in this route are ok; you will get sandpaper surfaces in Pollachi-Palladam stretch. Cheers

Traveled to Hosur yesterday.
From Madiwala, it took nearly 1.5 hrs to reach Hosur 'Arch' (KA-TN Border).
The entire stretch was chocked with traffic mainly with cracker shoppers.
Experienced long queues at both the toll plazas (a KM long)
After that, bad traffic jam before Hosur.

If you are heading that side, make sure you start very early & cross Hosur before the shopping spree begins.

• If you are going to Hosur for cracker shopping, do not enter TN.
• There are many cracker shops after the second toll plaza. (300-400 metres before the arch). Shop from there.
• On return, make sure you take the U-Turn just before the Arch.
• If you miss that, next turn is after 600 meters & it took us nearly an hour to reach there.

Off Topic: Shops offer up to 90% discount on MRP & 5% cash discount. But there is scope for more discount if you bargain.

Happy Diwali!

Disclaimer: Bursting crackers pollute the environment. I do not encourage buying / bursting crackers. This is meant only as a traffic update & as a money saver tip for fellow members.

Driving from Kochi to Bangalore on NH47/NH7 and reaching Salem now.

Believe me, the traffic is almost nil from Coimbatore bypass till now, we could find only few buses, hardly 5 lorries and less than 10 other vehicles towards Salem side.

Those who travelling tomorrow expect high traffic.

It was the same in the afternoon too(by 2-4 PM). Trucks were totally off the road.

A2B Thoppur was overcrowded with cars jostling for parking space.

Guys - pls suggest a suitable route from Coimbatore to Thattekadu in Kerala - I want to avoid the NH47 route if possible

I don't think you can avoid NH47 completely since you're going from Coimbatore so this may be an option:
Coimbatore-Pollachi-Vadakkencherry-join NH47 and go upto Angamaly-turn off to MC Road towards Kalady-near Perumbavoor turn off towards Kothamangalam.

Coimbatore-Pollachi-Vadakkencherry should be good, but not sure of current conditions for MC Road and beyond.

*As per latest reports even the Palakkad-Mannuthy-Chalakudy stretch of NH47 is good so you only avoid Coimbatore-Walayar-Palakkad by going in above route.

Thanks - I didnt know the Palakkad - Chalakudy stretch is good. When I had been there around Aug last week, there was major road widening work going on in the Palakkad - Thrissur stretch. I am surprised the work is over already !

Drove back from Home to Bangalore this morning.

Started from home (Pullut, 2.5kms from Kodungallur in Thrissur district) at around 0530 and reached home in Bangalore (Arakere, Bannerghatta Road) at 1400hrs. Total distance covered 474.5kms door-to-door. The MID reported a display of around 18.5kmpl - with 95% AC on.

The route followed was - Irinjalakkuda-Thalore-Mannuthy-Alathur-Palakkad Bypass-Coimbatore bypass-Karumathampatti-Annur-Sathy-Talamalai RF-Bailur-Kollegal-Malavalli-Kanakapura-Kaggalipura-NICE Road-BG Road.

I had initially planned to take the Salem route - accordingly got on to Coimbatore bypass - the traffic at each toll gate was heavy. This made me think twice. Stopped for breakfast at Karumathampatti Saravana Bhavan. And then took the turn to Annur.

Had seen this deviation at Talamalai on GMaps - so decided to try it out this time. Saw a board "Kollegal" just past Talamalai (thats after Dimbam ghats). Took the turn - the road was in pristine shape throughout the TN section. Its wide exactly for two vehicles to pass by. There are a couple of settlements on the way - but hardly any road traffic.

The roads were a bit poor around the TN-KA Border (for about 4-5 kms). Was stopped at the Forest checkpost in Bailur (TN-KA Border). The guard there entered details in the register and we continued. The road was amazingly scenic - seriously looks like some hill station. The last few kms before Kollegala was in average shape - some "dips" on the road slowing down progress.

Kollegal to Kanakapura was bliss - hardly any traffic on the road - whatever traffic comes in batches, and hence was quite negotiable. The traffic got a bit on the heavier side after Kanakapura - especially after Harohalli. Could manage to cruise along at a steady pace for most of the time though. Made it home for lunch easily.

One pic from the route:

How long did the drive take from Talamalai to Kollegal ? Around 2 hours ? Any wildlife sightings ?

Yeah - It took around 1.5~2 hrs (did not exactly note). No wildlife spottings anywhere.

Its a good road. Extremely narrow in the hills. But absolutely zero help and services on this road except for a few places like Baliur, Germalem etc. Wont advice this route for regular commute esp for people traveling with families. Surprisingly SH # seems to be changed SH38. It used to be called SH17-A !

Had posted this some time back. Crossing posting those snaps.




This was at Dimbam at Noon!

I remember some one in this thread posting some time back (not sure how long ago) that this stretch was in bad shape. Looks good to me for a sedate drive to Kerala. I guess this should save a few kms and some time.

Actually there isn't too much of difference in the distance. It's only about 2 or 3 kms shorter than going on NH209. But I think it will certainly be worth trying out at least once since the route goes mostly through the forest, and so it must be pretty scenic with very little traffic.

As Kala said, you don't save any distance. For a new route you can surely try and its scenic too. But do note, with family you dont find any place for breaks till Sathyamangalam. Hence my initial comment about avoiding this route, if you are driving with family.