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Bumping up this old thread.

Any updates on the preferred route from Chennai to Palakkad. I have a planned trip coming up end of this month. I have never travelled beyond Dharmapuri on road in the last 15 years.

Nowadays its a no brainer. Tambaram-Villupuram-Ulundurpettai-V Koot Road-Chinna Salem-Salem-CBE bypass-Walayar-Palakkad.

The circuitous routes were taken circa 2007-2014 because of Mamandur-Trichy and Ulundurpettai-Salem 4-laning.

Best place to ask is: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ds-kerala.html

I last drove this way in February (Chennai-Calicut). Took Chennai-Ulundurupet-Salem-Coimbatore-Palakkad-Calicut. Road was good throughout. There was a political event somewhere near Kallakurichi that brought out an infestation of flag-carrying, maniacally driven SUVs on the road; except for that it was all very pleasant. Going round Salem is just like going round Bangalore via ORR. A 11:30 AM start from Chennai saw me at Palakkad (Olavakkode) at around 9:30 PM.

This route is probably the best if you are starting from anywhere south of say, Anna Nagar.

The advantage of doing the chennai-vellore-krishnagiri-thoppur-mettur-salem-bhavani is that one has to pay lesser toll than the alternate Chennai-Ulundurpettai-salem route.

1. Bumpy ride to Chennasamudram with 100s of those white devils outwitting each other at 60 and 61 kmph.

2. Cutthroat competition from Krishnagiri with Thoppur to spice things up.

3. Busy Thoppur-Mettur-Bhavani SH where none of the towns have bypasses

All these are unworthy to save 100 Rs for a TN-11 resident who sits right beside GST road and saves more money by driving less km and a lot less headaches to worry about :)

Absolutely. I'm a regular on this route between Chennai - Thrissur and last drove this route on Christmas eve.



Additionally you will have to share the road with Bangalore bound traffic from Chennai till Krishnagiri and then with Kerala bound unruly Bangalore cars till Palakkad. On the Ulundurpet route, there would be no Bangalore cars till Salem. Also, I think tolls are higher on the Krishnagiri route though I'm not sure.

This got me thinking, why is that? May be because the sheer amount of Bangalore registered cars you see till Palakkad? I guess you would agree that the percentage of unruly drivers would be same regardless of their registration state?

It was not my intention to paint every Bangalorean as unruly, my sincere apologies if I did come across that way. On this particular stretch there are a lot of Bangalore Regd cars that drive on the highway like they do in the city. I have never driven in Bangalore and my experience with Bangalore cars are limited to the Highway between Salem Thrissur.

The stretch between Vikravandi & Salem mostly sees very little traffic and is generally easier to drive on.

Probably because I live in Bangalore; but the moment i see KA-NN on the plate I am a bit extra-wary. Not just on highways, but even within cities. One reason is that I am conditioned by the utter lawlessness on Bangalore roads. But this much is true: Whenever I see a vehicle being driven rashly within say, Chennai or Kochi - I mentally think, "oh - that's a Bangalorean" - and I'm right more often than wrong.

All of which basically means - empirically, the percentage of unruly drivers is higher for KA-[01-05,50-53] than other states.

No need to apologize, I was genuinely interested in the statistical aspect for the observation. I see quite a few drivers of local district registered cars equally unruly in their pursuit, but I tend to give benefit of the doubt to them being locals. But on a holiday weekend, I agree with your observation.

Truly agree and can go on ranting about the Bangalore driver with the "ORR Mode" on. And with the WFHometown situation, there are plenty of specimen on KL roads too.

Big city cars are fast and aggressive and this effect is felt primarily over the 150-200 km radius from them. Bangalore license plates aren't alone. Its just that Krishnagiri-Salem will witness the maximum brunt of this aggression with TN-24 and TN-70 in supporting roles. Same story with Madras plates as you approach/leave the 200 km radius.

Ulundurpettai-Salem is not a part of any major city connectivity. So the traffic is almost 1/10th or less than Krishnagiri-Salem or Madras-Trichy.

Big OT to this thread but I have the same opinion and I have shared it in the Bangalore -Tirupati route thread.
Just sharing what I have experienced in my 30 years of commuting experience in the Chittoor-Tirupati Road.

continuing with one more OT post - I call this the "weekend warrior" phenomenon on NH that are connected directly with big cities - blore, chennai, hyd, tvm, kochi etc... people not regular on highways, who are used to "see gap, fill gap" in city driving, swarm the highways on saturday morning and sunday evening/night. You can figure out "weekend warrior" drivers from just the way they accelerate and brake - the driving will be completely unsmooth and jerky. Typical example => When you have already eased off the throttle, after seeing the 45 kph lorry trying to overtake the 44 kph lorry, 100m ahead ; Swifts/i10s/i20s etc will be flying past you at 120 kph and then brake like mad only when they are 10m near to the two lorries. Also, the honking will be mad as well, even if they can see that the 45 kph lorry can't go any faster due to his load.

Agree with you to the 'T'. Dont understand the logic of people driving like crazy to be queued up in the next toll again with all. To ultimately save half an hour max, I wonder! As they say Indians are always in a hurry not to reach anywhere on time :Frustrati

On weekends, Salem - Krishnagiri - BLR & vice versa is like an adrenaline filled race course with some crazy pit stops in the form of Attibele, Krishnagiri tolls and Salem traffic! If you are lucky and choose a long weekend, you will have enough time to have your breakfast, get out & stretch, have one more coffee at the EC toll booth itself before getting out of BLR :)

Nowadays for my drive to Kerala, onward and return, I choose normal week days with no public holidays at sight. Lesser crowds in highway restaurants and option to choose as well.

Feel better to enjoy the holiday season in BLR than on the highways.

Just got back from KL last Sunday and the scenarios you and @venkyhere mentioned were absolutely true and brought a smile. Especially the truck at 45KMPH trying to over take another one going at 44KMPH (and with perhaps an auto rickshaw also joining the fun on the extreme right lane). These days as a policy I avoid the Attibele toll (by going via TVS check post). In my limited experience this would be the most mismanaged, inefficient toll booth in South India. No lane based system, and every one and his uncle wants to throw tantrums and try to get away without paying a toll.

In the last trip, I sensed danger as soon as I crossed Salem city. Too many slow moving trucks joined the roads and I also noticed that every four wheeler seems to be in a rush to go ahead. Even switching lanes to avoid a slow moving lorry was becoming a stress; as no one slowed down after seeing my indicators flashing. At this rate the toll booth a Thoppur, Krishnagiri and Attibele would be absolute chaos. We decided to take the Omalur-Mecheri-Pennagaram-Palacode route. Even on the Omalur-Mecheri stretch there was some truck movement, but after that it was good roads and less traffic.

Google Maps was acting too smart; due to which we were taken on some really narrow and interior routes to reach Pennagaram. To be frank, it was still day light hours or else I would not have the confidence to drive through that roads with my wife and child. And I also don't know how to make Google Maps give some reasonable routes, or say stick to national and state highways only. On the stretch between Pennagaram & Palacode I completely avoided Google Maps who still insisted on showing me the beautiful remote villages of TN.

When nearing Palacode it started raining and it continued to rain till we reached our home near Electronic city. Palacode bye-pass had some construction happening but other than that the road was very well maintained. I could also see a steady stream of KA01, KA02, KA03 series cars on this route; but most of them seems to be unfamiliar with the route. The darkness and rains also may have added to their woes.

Any ways; the New Year vacation for 2020-2021 has been "challenging" in more than one way. Another incident which happened to me on my entry to Kerala.