Team-BHP - All Roads to Kerala

Quote:

Originally Posted by benbsb29 (Post 1487724)

Thanks for the info, Anup. My friend who went by this route last month also threw in a word of caution regarding the route after Kumily. :)

Between, when are you travelling by this route next?

I should be hitting this section again by the first week of november.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth (Post 1487678)

I doubt if its the case with the current Night Movement Ban at Bandipur what you say might be true with the Masinagudi Checkpost. I did not come across any post talking of greasing your way through the current ban at Moolehole and Bandipur or did I miss something?

last friday couple of my cousins in a M800 slipped through this section and thats how i know. they started from blore at 2000 hrs and reached cochin in the afternoon via mysore , gudalur , nilambur.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaisha8 (Post 1489880)

The road conditions in Kerala are just pathetic:eek: now and the Govt doesnt do anything until the rains are over. Instead they could have repaired the roads before the monsoon and these bad conditions could have been averted. When will our Govt learn? I am posting below some sample pictures of present road conditions in KERALA - God's own country!!!

i loved the fishing picture , one can do nothing but laugh at the condition of the state. for all reasons the "gods own country" has done to the dawgs !

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaisha8 (Post 1489880)

It doesn't look like pictures taken recently. If not all, atleast some are not.
The uploader please confirm if he has taken these photos, or someone he personally knows has taken these.
I remember seeing few of these photos 1 year back also in some forwarded mail. Also, personally has seen the place in the 1st picture recently. This condition is of the last year. Another proof is, the KSRTC bus seen in the first picture existed only 1 year back. The painting scheme of the superfasts has changed after that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by abhilash_iv (Post 1490214)

Exactly, seem to have seen these pics or such pics in some forward mail. Would like to know which area this is? Not the highways, anyway. Sharp eye there Abhilash. OT: Glad to see the old Super Express paint scheme back on.

I did the Coimbatore - TVM stretch yesterday..

as such Kerala roads are not that great but it looked ok to me before i started the trip expecting the worst

i was pleasantly surprised to see some major widening work that started i think from Thrissur byepass.. once completed it should be a nice stretch from there on for another 10-20kms i guess

beyond that NH47 in this part of the country is the same old road i have seen back in 2003 also - am sure it was the same before that too !!

the continuous rains have also battered the roads. even on the highways one can see some SHODDY patch work done which would be inexcusable even in city roads elsewhere in the country

only saving grace is that you hardly pay any toll anywhere...but then u get what you paid for

Just returned from 5 day (17th - 22nd Sept) vacation from Bangalore to Kumarakom (around 650 KMs in each direction).

Route: Bangalore - Salem - Karur - Dindigul - Sembatti - Vattalagundu - Periakulam - Theni - Cumbum - Kumaly - Peermade - Kanjirapally - Kottayam - Kumarakom

Here is an update on road conditions.

Bangalore - Karur: 4 lane all the way (only in couple of places in Salem there is some construction work going on). Nothing to worry about at all. This 310 KM stretch can be done in under 5 hours.

Karur - Dindigul: Around 60% of this 70-odd KM stretch has 4-lanes. In other places diversion takes you onto one half of the wide lane. THere are 3-4 flyover constructions which slow things down just a little bit. Overall comfortable drive

Dindigul - Kumaly: Take right at Dindigul towards Kodaikanal and proceed onto Theni-Kumaly. Great 2-lane (NH 45 till Theni and then NH 220 all the way to Kottayam) roads for most part. Some minor potholes in the towns enroute due to rain. Otherwise you can reach Kumaly (on Kerela-TN border) in around 3 hours of non-aggressive driving. Distance around 150-odd KM. I will post more accurate distance soon.

Kumaly - Kottayam: Excellent ghat roads, superb conditions. On either side of Kumaly for 5-8 KMs, there are some rough stretches relatively. The reason is that the remainder of the route has fanstatic roads. This route is also very picturesque. Winding ghat roads, light rain and lots of glistening greenery. One of the best routes that I have seen. You are never close to the edge of the road at any time. Very scenic and very safe. Distance is about 120-odd KMs. This took me around 3 hours (with couple of tea breaks). I was warned about some bad patches, but I did not find any and I did notice some tar patches in the section he mentioned. May be roads have been repaired.

Kottayam - Kumarakom: Don't look at the distances in the sign boards. THe directions are correct but you will find two boards within 5 meters one saying Kumarakom is 14 Kms, while the other one says 8 Kms. Actual distance is around 20Kms (depends on the resort also). It took nearly 45 minutes to cover this.

Overall Bangalore - Karur (310 Kms): 4-5 hours depending on Bangalore traffic volume or Salem by-pass traffic volume. Karur - Kottayam (340 Kms) - around 7 hours. I did not hit a single pothole and my low GC Fiesta sports did not scrape the bottom anywhere. It was an absolute pleasure driving this car on the ghats. Handled unbelievably well. I am not an aggressive driver and had taken lots of breaks because I was traveling with family.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mogambo (Post 1494667)

Drove Mysore - Nilambur - Trichur on Thursday.
Gudalur stretch is bad (10km) but you can average around 40kmph types.

After Nilambur, roads have a lot of potholes all the way until Trichur thanks to the rains - but decently drivable.

Planning to leave TCR at 7am on Wednesday to head back to Bangalore via Palakkad - Mettur/Bhavani - Thoppur.

Would appreciate advice on decent breakfast/lunch hotels.

Please provide input.

Thanks

-r

Hey Mogambo, please do update the road condition on the above mentioned route. i am planning to take this road on 26th morning to Ernakulam.

Generally i prefer the Mysore-Wayanad-Calicut-NH17-Ekm for night driving since there is less traffic and the roads are (were?) good. these are the facts / assumptions based on which i decided to take Salem route this time.

1. Forest road is closed for traffic in night
2. even if i start around 3AM and reach the border by dawn, i assume the the truck traffic will be high as all the pile up will start moving around the same time.
3. Mysore city is going to be crowded and possible traffic diversions due to Dussera festival (unlikely in the morning though, but still 2nd point holds good)
4. If i start past midnight, the roads till Selam are very good (know this for sure since i had gone to Hoganekkal last weekend) and night driving will not be a problem. post which i am not sure about the road condition, so better to drive in daylight.

Questions i have are..
1.which route is better..Salem - Comby NH47, or Via Mettur
2. Hows the road condition after Walayar..

Any other members who have recently taken this road can help me too.

Hi Folks - here's the latest on my Trichur - Bangalore drive yesterday.
Left Trichur at 7am yesterday (Wednesday).
Reached Palakkad Chandranagar bypass around 8:10am and stopped for breakfast and coffee (brought from home) by the roadside.

The route via Wayalar was not too bad - potholes in 3-4 places. Also, they are patching up the road and it can get bottlenecked since in those areas, they stop one side of the traffic and let only the other side go, one at a time. So it is better to clear that part early, before the traffic gets thick.

Trucks were lined up by the checkpost but again, due to the early hours we didn't get blocked.

From Palakkad, upto L&T Bypass Tollgate, the roads were not too bad at all.
The L&T Road is a dream drive that ends too soon :)
Then Avinashi upto Bhavani - the road opens up to a 4 lane half-way this stretch and is great.
At Bhavani I ended up taking the flyover ramp to the right towards Salem accidentally and drove down the river on the bridge then back up again. It was tempting to use the 4 lane towards Salem but I decided to stick to the original plan (Bhavani-Mettur-Thoppur).
Took the 2 lane road towards Thoppur - stopped by the pseudo-Saravana Bhavan for coffee at 11:45am and took directions to Adyar Anand Bhavan for lunch. (The coffee and vadai were rather bad there, btw at SB).
Anyways, most of the route towards Thoppur was pretty good - hardly any vehicles at all - in fact it was so deserted that there were times we were wondering if we are on the right track at all.
We had to stop for directions at a couple of T junctions but got to Thoppur around 1 types. Turned left on the NH7, passed the tollgate and stopped at A2B for lunch (just after tollgate) around 1:15. A2B food was really good, especially after the long drive.

Sharp 2pm we left to Bangalore. Unbelievable road - covered 100km in 70min (3:10 pm).
reached Hosur around 3:30pm and that was it - welcome to Bangalore. Things began crawling after that with pathetic roads and even more pathetic traffic. However, reached home (Indiranagar) at 4:30pm.

Didn't get hit by 4-laning works anywhere on this route. Btw, on the Bhavani-Thoppur leg, it's amazing that even in such small places, they are filling up potholes and fixing the roads even before they deteriorate too badly.

So there it is. Planning to do my next trip via Salem bypass to use more of the 4laning.

Summary of both ways:
BLR-Mysore-Nilambur-TCR: Mysore road is great. Gudalur has a bad stretch but doable. Roads are great until Wandoor. After that one hits infrequent potholes all along till the outskirts of Trichur.
TCR - Palakkad-Bhavani-Thoppur-BLR: Good roads all the way. Some patchwork needed on Bhavani-Thoppur leg but overall quite comfortable.

hi bhpians,

I have been following this thread very closely before my trip to Trivandrum. Here's my update.

Started from Bangalore on Friday, 18th September at 04:30 pm from Electronic City. We took the following route.

Bangalore ---> Hosur ---> Krishnagiri ----> Thoppur ----> Mettur ---> Bhavani ----> Coimbatore ----> Palakkad ---> Thrissur ----> Cochin ---> Trivandrum.

Stopped at BP dhaba Hosur for tea and snacks, then a small hotel near Bhavani for Dinner. Reached Trivandrum at 08:00 am on Saturday 19th.

The Thoppur ---> Bhavani route is strictly two-lane with lot of potholes. It is difficult to drive this stretch at night. When we covered this route, it was raining also which made it worse :Frustrati

In Kerala, from Thrissur to Angamaly some four laning work is goin on, other than that roads are ok.

While returning to Bangalore, started from Cochin and took the following route:

Cochin ----> Thrissur ----> Palakkad -----> Coimbatore ----> Salem ----> Dharmapuri ----> Krishnagiri ----> Bangalore.

Started from Cochin on 23rd September at 05:45 am and reached Bangalore at 04:45 pm. Stopped at Vadakkancheri for breakfast, Saravana Bhavan after CBE for tea and BP dhaba after Dharmapuri for lunch.

From Coimbatore to Salem roads are very good. Only some parts four laning work is in progress and hence some diversions but much better than Thoppur ---> Bhavani route. I would highly recommend this route :thumbs up