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The checkposts are there for a specific reason - to check :)
There is no straight forward answer to this question, yes they may check depending on certain situations like elections, some border issues, alerts, yellow board taxis, self-driven rental cars, etc and if they suspect anything looking at your car.

In all my trips to Wayanad and calicut I have never been stopped at the forest/RTO check posts but cops stopped once near Kalpetta town to check vehicle documents. If all papers are in order, they check for PUC :D but on that occasion they did not check the car per se.

Thanks for the info!

Car papers check is not a prob. But what I mean is proper car check. That incident in the TN side was bad as the guard somehow thought to literally open my bags and me not knowing the local language meant I wasnt able to object in any way.

Is this allowed? I will be in a self driven KA registered car with two people (only adults late 20's, no kids) on board. Any precautions I should take.

The last time I returned to TN from Bangalore, my car was checked by the TN police and they opened my bags. My car runs TN plates and I speak the language fluently, that never stopped them from opening the bags. In short, if they want to check, they will check, and protesting it will only make them feel that you have some contraband to hide.

Oh yes. Excise inspectors are authorized under various laws to search and arrest. And they try to be thorough.

Similarly, ECI gets sweeping powers during election season. Their cops too are exceptionally thorough. I've been through this twice - once during KA state election in 2013 (between Kollegal and Chamarajanagara), and twice during Lok Sabha elections in 2014. They will most definitely require you to open up all bags and cases. They will videograph the process too.

Apart from these two, the other forces don't bother to search private vehicles unless there are strong reasons to suspect something.

Been travelling this route for 3 years now, on an average once in two months.. Never I was stopped inside Kerala for any kind of checks.. Lucky??

A friend reported election related checking yesterday near to Gudalur.

Hey are you telling Edappadi Omalur stretch is in good condition?? Last time I took the road was almost 6-7months back and the road was in very bad condition because of which you cannot even speed up your car and thereafter I never tried the road and always taking the main route which has 3 extra tolls via Salem bypass. Please revert with recent road updates on this stretch

I travel on the Bangalore - Wayanad route at least once or twice a month and encounter these checks (for papers) approximately 50% of the time. On Saturday also I was stopped and papers checked. The same squad was checking at around the same spot near Muthanga when I returned on Sunday - they stopped my car, but since it was the same cop who had checked my papers on Saturday who came for checking, he recognized me and waved me on.

So you have certainly been lucky indeed !

Didn't encounter any election related checks so far in Kerala.

Yes that's what I meant. The route i've taken is in the original post
:)
Hope the luck continues. Next try is on 13th April night..overnighter to CLT.

Checking for papers ( Mostly PUC) and sunfilms near Muthanga and Lakkidi is a recent phenomenon I guess. I started noticing this around 1.5 years back, prior to that have never seen police checking on this route.

Excise checking is mostly time based, you have more chances of getting stopped when traveling closer to festivals. But then, if traveling with family the mostly let you through without stopping.

Did a Bangalore-Attingal night drive and a return day drive through the following route. Bommasandra-Salem-Tirumangalam-Rajapalayam-Thenmala-Madathara-Nilamel-Kilimanoor-Alamcode-Attingal.

Night drive: Started from Bommasandra at 5:41 p.m. Reached Attingal at 5:43 a.m. This time included 2-1/2 hours of breaks including for a short nap, toddler tantrums, food, etc. A total of 660 km. Of note, Salem-Madurai was a breeze. Sparse traffic. Could easily maintain excellent cruising/average speeds. Just one pic, of the almost-deserted Velanchettiyur Toll Plaza:


Day drive: Started from Attingal at 9:15 a.m. Reached Bommasandra at 10:30 p.m. I reckon a driving time of about 10 hours and the rest for breaks.

Road surface in Kerala were a mixed bag, but nothing real bad as to slow you down.

Welcome to Tamil Nadu:


Shengottah till Chokkampatti is real good:


Less so after that:


There were some really broken surfaces on this stretch with a couple of nasty potholes, but compared to a few months back, they have patched up most of the nastiest potholes and doesn't slow you down as much as it used to. I would take this route again.

Even on the NH-7, there were some broken surfaces in the Dindigul-Madurai stretch, with some nasty ones around Madurai, but overall, the roads were like this after Tirumanagalam:


The car was a petrol swift, consumed about 5000 worth of petrol, filling up entirely from the state of TN @56.xx.

In the Tirumangalam-Shengottah stretch where restaurant choices are limited, recommend Bell Monkey near Shengottah (8.966109, 77.280827) and Ananda Vilas in Rajapalayam (AFAIK, 9.471349, 77.572096).

Perceptibly increased police presence along the Tirumangalam-Shengottah stretch, but no one flagged us down. In fact, the only time we had to stop for the authorities was during the night drive, at Aryankavu Excise check post. They shone a torch into the car, saw ladies and the kid inside and waved us on.

Already looking forward to the next drive :D.

How were the roads between Shenkotta and Thenmala? Doable in a low ground clearance car? Also what route did you take from Thenmala and how was the condition? Thanks a lot for this post as I'll be doing the same route next week.

I know. I read your earlier post and the above post was mostly for your benefit :).

Shenkotta-Thenmala is good, except a few places near bridges and culverts. I didn't encounter any issues with the swift, not even came close.

Took Thenmala-Kulathupuzha-Madathara-Kadakkal-Nilamel. Road is broken in bits and pieces, fair in others, I would rate it a 5-7 on a scale of 10; no major issues I can recall. I turned off after Nilamel, don't know how the Nilamel-Parippally-Varkala stretch is, haven't traveled recently; but considering the general condition of roads in Varkala constituency, I don't think you will have any trouble.

Only a couple of places I can think of where a low GC car "might" bottom out; one is where the Madurai turn off begins in the NH-7. There is a sharp drop in height and deteriorated surface. Another one is somewhere near Rajapalayam, I can't point out exactly where.

I'm planning for a drive down to Thrissur from Bangalore on 22 of this month. I'm a usual in this route doing at-least one trip in 3 months.

It's special this time because we are traveling with our little one and she is 4 months old now. This will be her first long road trip. Our pediatrician and other known friends suggested to hit the road during her usual sleeping time. Most of the days she sleeps deep between 1:00 AM and 8:00 AM. Hence we are planning to start around 2:00 AM and planning to take NH7 and NH47 and my last road trip on this route was on early January.
Need your suggestion and advice here on this.

• Is is safe to travel at 2:00 AM
• Any precautionary measures to be considered?
• Any recent / new bad patches, speed breakers in this stretch than need to be watched?
• Will there be unusual checks owing to upcoming assembly elections?

Any information / suggestions are highly appreciated.

Cheers!

1. 2AM shouldn't be an issue. There will be lot of vehicles on the road. Don't stop in dark and isolated spots even if your baby cries.
2. I am hoping you are taking your baby in a properly attached car seat. drive sedatively, even with smaller speed you will average higher kilometers at early morning time.
3. Not much. Only bad stretch is after CBE bypass which you will cover in day light.
4. Possible. Keep luggage minimum and don't stack bags if possible.

I've started a few trips in Jan-Feb at 1:00 AM.

No safety issue anywhere, as long as you stick to the NH route only. Be wary of denser truck traffic and be prepared to drive slower than usual near Zuzuwadi (the checkpost), Krishnagiri (the NH changes to 4-L from 6-L), Thoppur ghat (quite a lot of trucks stop after descending the ghat), Neelambur, Madukkarai-Walayar stretch (construction) and Walayar checkpost (long queue of trucks).

Precautionary measures would be the usual stuff for any overnighter. I'd recommend carrying a portable tyre inflation pump, Colin/similar glass-cleaning compound, etc. The latter would help when you have the front glass smeared with dead bugs. I stopped for bio-breaks only near toll-booths.

The worst patch is the under-construction stretch between Madukkarai and Walayar. The next in line would be the L&T bypass. As some additional info, there are signals installed at Chandranagar, Kazhchaparambu (after Paalana hospital), Kuzhalmannam, Alathur and a couple of other places.

During our last trip on 12th, we were flagged down twice - first near Ettimadai where the Chavadi bypass begins, and then at Walayar checkpost. They merely shined a flashlight into the rear seat, after seeing only our bags containing the clothes and laptops, waved us off. Very polite, and no aggression. They don't trouble people travelling as a family.