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Hi, I might have to commute from Palakkad to Coimbatore to my office tomorrow. I would be riding by bike. Will i be required to register anywhere or can i simply ride through.

Planning a trip to TN this weekend. For a KL registered vehicle, do i need to take a short trip pass or something? Leaving on Saturday and getting back the next day itself.

Daily commuters to Coimbatore from Palakkad don’t have to worry. Just tell the cop manning the post and he/she will let you through.

Any recent updates on Kuthiran stretch. Heard that it's very bad. Planning to drive down to Ernakulam from BLR on 18th Dec. Do we need to avoid Kuthiran?

The strech is in a very bad condition now. Lots of patholes and few are so bad that you'll defenitely scrape the underbody if not taken slowly.

It's doable though. We did a Chennai-Thrissur trip on November 22. Didn't scrape anywhere, but you should be careful enough to take them slowly.

Our drive was a Hyundai Verna and was fully loaded. So you should be safe to go!

Yesterday I did the stretch during my Bangalore - Poonjar drive in a fully loaded Crysta.
Though its very bumpy ride, but easily doable. Not much traffic yesterday, we covered the stretch in 10 minutes.

Thanks for the update. Is there any kind of enforcement on quarantine if someone is travelling for more than 7 days? Kind of confused as I have to be there for like 10 days and return. It will be difficult if all those 10 days are to be in HQ :Frustrati

The 8 day short visit is completely quarantine free. And going by the rule book, any further stay warrants for a COVID test on 8th day.

But, since there is no checking carried out at Walayar, it's impossible for the authorities to have a track on who's entering the state, when and for how long.

For the 8 days that we stayed in Thrissur, no one from the health department contacted us about our whereabouts.

However, we did consult our local health department about the stay and they were of the stance that unless the neighbours express any distress of you coming from another state, they're fine with it.

So, it's more like what the local authorities decide. It's best to call the nearest health department and get all the doubts cleared.

We drove down from Bangalore to Punalur (Kollam) yesterday, 6 Dec, Sunday. Route taken - Bangalore > Salem > Namakkal> Dindigul > Tirumangalam > Tenkasi > Aryankavu > Punalur. Started at 5:30 AM and reached our destination by 4:00 PM. We packed food and stopped twice, 45 mins each for breakfast and lunch.

Roads are all good till Tirumangalam where the 4 lane expressesway ends. Progress was slow from here onwards owing to the road and traffic conditions especially the roads pass through the small towns. Tirumangalam to Rajapalyam the road though undivided/bidirectional, was in good shape. At Rajapalyam we lost 15-20 mins due to a one-way diversion from the usual main road. Roads past Rajapalyam up until Tenkasi is in bad shape, patchy at best, but manageable if one is on the lookout for the occasional pothole. Roads from Tenkasi to Aryankavu and once into Kerala side of the border are good.

I had taken the both the Kerala domestic pass and the Tamilnadu transit pass. Though Tamilnadu has relaxed it for folks coming from Karnataka recently, I did not want to take any chances. There was no checking anywhere, while entering or on the way within Tamilnadu. Cops at the border checkpost(just before climbing up the hilly section) though waved us down and required me to get down and report at one of the counters, that in spite of showing the printout of the pass. I obliged and showed the pass at one of the counters, they just waved me off!:Frustrati

Once on the Kerala side the cops stopped us (and other non KL cars), but they let us off once we showed them the pass. Vehicles with KL registrations are just waved off irrespective of where they come from! :Shockked: Thankfully there was no requirement to get down from the car for temperature checks and other formalities related to Covid, as reported a few weeks by some of the forum members. Not sure if the checks are relaxed now or if it was due to it being a Sunday and cops and government machinery gearing up for the local polls in 2 days time. No calls from the local health officials either, however we plan to strictly follow the 14 day quarantine requirement!

Tamilnadu cops at the border checkpost just before climbing up the hilly section stopped us and required me to report at one of the counters, that inspite of showing the printout of the pass. The person at the counter just asked me where I was coming from and waved me off!
On the Kerala side the cops stopped us again, but then they let us off once we showed them the pass. There was no requirement to get down from the car for temperature checks and other formalities related to Covid, as reported a few weeks back by some of the forum members. Again I am not sure if the checks are relaxed now or if it was due to it being a Sunday and cops and government machinery gearing up for the local polls round the corner. If you have a KL registered vehicle you might be in for some luck as they were just not being stopped at all!:)

Hi, trust all are doing well.

Bangalore - Trivandrum travel coming up in few weeks. Taking the Salem - Madhurai - Thirunelveli - Tvm route.
For applying for the 7 day pass - which Checkpost to exit TN and which one to enter Trivandrum?
Thank you

Hi All,
I am planning to drive from Trivandrum to Kannur. From Googlemaps, I have these 2 options.

Trivandrum->Kollam->Kochi->Thrissur->Calicut->Kannur (NH66)
Trivandrum->Kottyam->Angamali->thrissur->Calicut->Kannur (MC Road)

Please recommend on current road and usual traffic conditions. I plan to start at 6 AM from TVM.

Saravana Bhavan at Vaigundam/Sankagiri now has an operational 50kW fast charger for EVs, installed by Zeon Charging. This opens up doing Bangalore-Kochi, and return in even the Nexon EV which has the lowest range of the current crop of EVs. Sign of things to come.

Needed a small help from fellow BHP'ians. AFAIK, once you go out of Kerala and then come back into the state, you need to be under quarantine. Does anybody know if there is a short-pass to go and come back in a day or two? I need to go to Chennai to pick some stuffs and come back the next day. Planning to go by road.

If I plan to drive down to Kollam directly from BLR, which route would be better and probably less tiring?

BLR - Salem - Palakkad - Thrissur - Ekm - Alapuzha - Kollam
BLR - Salem - Dindigul - Tirumangalam - Shenkottai - Tenmala - Punalur - Kollam

I will be travelling with my family and plan to start around 5:30AM in the morning.

I understand that Ekm - Kollam is 2 lane (barring till Cherthala) and would have heavy traffic mostly but no winding roads like the one via Tenmala. Similarly heavy traffic from Punalur to Kollam with narrow 2 lane.

GMaps shows more or less the same duration for both the routes.