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Had Thrissur - Bangalore drive today. Reached Kuthiran @7AM. One container lorry had toppled. More over, our 'Well disciplined' vehicle users made 3 lanes from either side and it was a dead block. Waited for an hour and then took a detour and came via Thrisdur-Vadakkancery-Alathur.
Lost almost 4 hours additional.

I was also stuck in Kuthiran from 7:15 AM to 8:45 AM. I waited till the container was cleared. We had packed break fast from home while we were stuck. Should have reached Whitefield by 2:30 PM but reached only at 5:00 PM.

Really unfortunate to hear about the Kuthiran mess! We had been to Lulu last Saturday and cleared the stretch in less than 5 minutes during the onward and return drives.

Also noticed that the Indian Coffee House adjacent to the BP pump at Pattikad has now been relocated to a building on the service road further ahead. No more getting into the slushy mess during monsoons now!

I returned to Chennai from Palakkad yesterday and took 10 hours end-to-end with the CC set at 90 kmph. The usual Salem, Thoppur tolls were heavily crowded but progressing gradually. The operators at the Thoppur toll were handing over the pre-printed receipts ahead of the booths to ease the crowd:



They do this when the tolls witness crowds after extended weekends.

Man, the biggest pain was Coimbatore bypass! It took me an hour to clear this stretch. During our onward journey, I went through the city. We literally breezed through in the midnight with near empty roads. Only the stretch from Ukkadam till the 4-laned road would slow one down but much much less agony than the bypass road I tell you. I'm not going to take the L&T bypass henceforth during the onward drives.

The diversions are still in place, traversable. Not too bad TBH.

Same here as well.
Reached Kuthiran around 7:45 AM and crossed it at 8:45 AM. Reached whitefield around 6:30PM as we stopped for breakfast and lunch.
I was driving on this stretch after 7 months and quite impressed with the drive between mannuthy-vadakkancherry except for kuthiran ghat and the new flyovers at salem.A lot of new eateries have been opened between mannuthy -vadakkanchery.
Fasttag lane was not very useful yesterday as there was a long queue.Some illiterate crooks were misguiding the security guard at fasttag lane by showing their fastag sticker which is now default while buying vehicle and then arguing with booth agent to pay cash:Frustrati

I was lucky to avoid Kuthiran since my return was from my wife's place in Munnar.

I was in double minds between using the Sathaymangalam-Kanakapura Vs Salem-Hosur anticipating heavy rush at toll booths. Google was showing 1 plus hours extra for Kanakpura road, finally spoke to a friend who had traveled on Salem stretch same day and decided to use the normal Salem route. It proved to be the right decision and we reached home 30 minutes before a friend who was using Kanakpura road and was 1 hour ahead of us. Toll booths were crowded, but there were extra lanes, people giving tickets in the queues and the lines were moving fast. I could reach Bangalore with less than 10 hours from Karadipara (around 40 mts drive from Munnar town on Aluva highway). I heard situation turned very bad at the toll plazas later and even on Monday morning with very long waits.

Guys, what will be the best route to Varkala from Bangalore (in terms of road conditions)? Gmaps shows a route through Madurai with a duration of 13+ hours. Is it the best one? I am worried about the road conditions in Kerala after the flood.

Probably thats the best route - Madurai, Shenkottai, Araynkavu, Kallada, Punalur Kottarakkara, Varkala (you can bypass Quilon)

Road condition, I think is OK enroute as not much flood damage happened in that belt (except some rain damage as per the info I have).

Best Regards & Drive Safe

Ram

I crossed Kuthiran 4 times over this long weekend and was smooth sail all 4 times. Even on Sunday 21st crossed from Palakkad to Thrissur around noon they had cleared everything by then. This was not the case three weeks back, all Kallada and KeralaLine Volvos, KSRTC's were taking Chelakara route then. It was a pain on all the alternates.

Now Viyyur ~ Athani ~ Wadakkanchery ~ Vazhakode is patched for 80% of the stretch, some bad spots around Wadakkanchery station though, this should add to the woes during the daytime.

Even I wanted to try through Coimbatore City next time during the onward journey which is usually after midnight.
It took 45 minutes (through L&T) for me yesterday around 8 PM, so I can imagine how bad it would have been on a long weekend Sunday evening.

On another note, I remember seeing a post by someone on this thread enquiring about Palakkad ~ Mannarkad ~ Perinthalmanna road condition. Not able to find the post now.
Recent rainfall had battered the entire stretch, starting from Chandranagar bypass, you will be invited with big craters and deep potholes all along, it will be a nightmare if you cover during the night too.

Cheers!

Any update on the roads to Mankulam near Munnar?

Any update on Bangalore-Munnar Route. Was any stretch on this route effected by recent floods?

Google is suggesting to take the following route:-
Bangalore --> Krishnagiri --> Salem --> Avinashi --> Palladam -->Munnar

Assume you are referring to Udumal --> Marayur --> Munnar route. Except for some rough patches in the Marayur and Chinnar forest stretch, it is all fine. I returned by this route last week from Munnar.

Did a quick weekender to Calicut to attend a wedding, that was more or less overnighters both ways. Among other things, a totally irrelevant thought occurred to me - that the stretch between Thoppur toll booth and Krishnagiri outskirts (about 60-65 km) is probably the most boring highway that I've driven on. :-)

Starting from the NH 213 origin junction at Kalmandapam, Palakkad - the monsoon damage is quite evident. There are several deep potholes on this NH stretch till Mundur. The Mundur-Cherpulassery-Perinthalmanna route has some sections in total shambles.

From Angadipuram I took my now standard Manjeri-Arekode-Edavannapara-Kozhikode. Very peaceful drive with hardly any traffic on the route.

While returning I took Manjeri-Pandikkad-Melattur-Mannarkad-Palakkad. Road condition is similar; main hassle is clearing Mannarkad town.

I totally ignored them. Do they send notices out of Kerala?

And now they've started barcode scanning at each toll booth (earlier an attendant just read off the number plate as you approached the booth). More time wasted per vehicle.

Binand, they had started this sometime back in July. Had mentioned it here:

During the last 2 occasions while driving to Palakkad, I went through the city. Will take this route now.

OK. I last went this way during the weekend of July 7 & 8. It wasn't being done then. Probably later in July.

I need to travel from Bangalore to Pathanamthitta. How is the state of the roads from Theni / Cumbum to Pathanamathitta now?

Google maps is showing Bangalore --- Dindigal --- Theni --- Cumbum --- Kottarakakkara --- Mylapra --- Pathanamthitta.

Can someone provide me details on the road condition for a Sedan?

Any help in this matter would be appreciated.

Any suggestions for a safe hotel to stay near Theni?