[jacs]

Originally Posted by joe

How is the Ernakulam - Tripunithara - Vaikom - Kumarakom - Kottayam road? thanks.

Kumarakom route was bad after rains but thanks to our president. Since Prathiba Patil is in Kumarakom visiting Bharananganam, roads are patched up . Not very sure on Tripunithra-Vaikom stretch, it should also be done considering the safety as an alternate exit from Kumarakom where she stays.

[joe]

Originally Posted by jacs

Kumarakom route was bad after rains but thanks to our president. Since Prathiba Patil is in Kumarakom visiting Bharananganam, roads are patched up . Not very sure on Tripunithra-Vaikom stretch, it should also be done considering the safety as an alternate exit from Kumarakom where she stays.

That is good news i guess the other roads around Kumarakom/Kottayam should be in a good condition as well.

[unni.ak]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Check out the following link, has the route details for Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapauri-Toppur-Salem-Namakkal-Karur-Dindigul-Periakulam-Theni-Cumbam-Kumili-Kanjirapalli-Kottayam

http://groups.google.com/group/hvkum...reKottayam.xls

Road is good throughout.

Roads after Cumbum (yes, thats how it is spelt!!), and around Kumily have potholes in decent numbers. The Kumily ghat section is also in bad shape. Nothing non-driveable, but will cut down your speed. If you are driving a sedan, please be careful on a couple of hairpins on the ghats, there are some stones sticking out.

[jacs]

Originally Posted by joe

That is good news i guess the other roads around Kumarakom/Kottayam should be in a good condition as well.

Joe, i checked with my dad. Below are the updates.

1) Kottayam - Kumarakom (Roads are in good condition)
2) Kumarakom - Vaikom (Roads are really bad due to Japan water project work)
3) Vaikom - Trippunithra (Roads are good except few pothholes)

[joe]

Originally Posted by jacs

Joe, i checked with my dad. Below are the updates.

1) Kottayam - Kumarakom (Roads are in good condition)
2) Kumarakom - Vaikom (Roads are really bad due to Japan water project work)
3) Vaikom - Trippunithra (Roads are good except few pothholes)

Thanks a lot jacs i was trying to figure out the quickest route to kumily from ernakulam, i had done this route earlier this year and found it to be quite good.

Anybody has any suggestions for the best route from Ernakulam to Kumily?

[kala]

Originally Posted by joe

Anybody has any suggestions for the best route from Ernakulam to Kumily?

I'd think that going via Muvattupuzha and Thodupuzha would be the shortest. From Thodupuzha one could go via Erattupetta-Kanjirappalli and thereon to Kumily on NH220 (Thodupuzha-Idukki-Kumily is another alternative). From what I heard, roads in Idukki district are in pretty decent shape even post-monsoon.

[narayanang76]

BHPians: Any latest updates on road condition of the following route to Kerala?

Bangalore - Mysore - Nanjangudu - Bandipur - Manjeri - Cherplassery - Ottapalam

Any recent updates please?

Google maps showing as 374 kms - is that accurate?

Narayanan

[ranjitp1]

We did Hyd-BLR-Mangalamkunnu last month and we took the BLR-CBE-PALAKKAD-Olavakode-Mundur-Kongad-M'kunnu(onwards by an extra 20kms you would reach Cherplasseri) route and it was an excellent route,I dont think GM's statistics of 374Kms is correct.

[jacs]

Originally Posted by unni.ak

Roads after Cumbum (yes, thats how it is spelt!!), and around Kumily have potholes in decent numbers. The Kumily ghat section is also in bad shape. Nothing non-driveable, but will cut down your speed. If you are driving a sedan, please be careful on a couple of hairpins on the ghats, there are some stones sticking out.

Hi Unni,

Could you please detail the bad stretches, like from where to where and approx distance etc. It would help compare with the Trissur route.

Others who travelled last week, how the road till Valayar from Bangalore? Any new craters or wells on road?

[joecherian]

Originally Posted by jacs

Hi Unni,

Could you please detail the bad stretches, like from where to where and approx distance etc. It would help compare with the Trissur route.

Others who travelled last week, how the road till Valayar from Bangalore? Any new craters or wells on road?

Roads from Bangalore to Walayar are excellent. No issues. I had been to EKM on 7th of this month. While going, I took the NH7-NH47 route. No issues till "Kuthiran".

While returning, I deviated off NH47 at karumathampatty, went to Annur-Sathymangalam-Mettur-Thoppur. Excellent roads in this part of town too.
Only issue is the Palghat-Trichur portion. If you are driving in the day, be ware of numerous speed checks done in the Trichur-Ekm stretch. I did see one speed check in the TCR -PGT stretch too. I don't remember the exact location.

[jacs]

Originally Posted by joecherian

Roads from Bangalore to Walayar are excellent. No issues. I had been to EKM on 7th of this month. While going, I took the NH7-NH47 route. No issues till "Kuthiran".

While returning, I deviated off NH47 at karumathampatty, went to Annur-Sathymangalam-Mettur-Thoppur. Excellent roads in this part of town too.
Only issue is the Palghat-Trichur portion. If you are driving in the day, be ware of numerous speed checks done in the Trichur-Ekm stretch. I did see one speed check in the TCR -PGT stretch too. I don't remember the exact location.

Thanks Joe. Could you please give more details on the said route via Sathyamangalam.

[joecherian]

Originally Posted by jacs

Thanks Joe. Could you please give more details on the said route via Sathyamangalam.

Hi Jacs, The route through Sathyamangalam might take same or more time when compared to the normal salem route. But, then I take this mainly because I get bored of driving on the NH. The sathy route gives you a peaceful drive with very less traffic.

You can take the sathy route by deviating from NH 47 at 2 points. First one is before the LT toll where in you will have to go through coimbatore city. This , at times, can be painful.Better aproach would be to take LT bye pass. After the bye pass, drive till Karumathampatty (which, is around 10 kms from the end of LT road).
At Karumathampatty, take the left turn which is again a SH, newly laid which will take you to Annur - Avinashi road. At this junction, take left which will take you to Annur town.
On reaching Annur, take the right which takes you to Sathyamangalam .In Sathy, look for directions for Athani. You might see directions for Bangalore (which actually goes through Chamarajnagar). Now, Sathy-Athani has atleast one junction that might be confusing. You might have to ask for directions for Athani and on reaching Athani, next junction is Anthiyur. After Anthiyur, get directions for Ammapettai (which is a left turn around 1 kms after Anthiyur on the Anthiyur Bhavani route. IF you miss this turn, you might end up in Bhavani.

Take the ammapettai road which takes you to Bhavani Mettur road and after this , it is the normal road.

If you are taking this route for the first time, I would advice you to pass this section in the day time as you might need assistance in getting directions (unless you have a navigation device)

Only disadvantage on this route is that you might not get any hotels/resttooms etc.Leaving this apart, the drive is absolutely refreshing (when compared to the boring 100 KMPH dash on NH)

[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by joecherian

Hi Jacs, The route through Sathyamangalam might take same or more time when compared to the normal salem route. But, then I take this mainly because I get bored of driving on the NH. The sathy route gives you a peaceful drive with very less traffic.

How about the distance difference between both the routes?

[joecherian]

Originally Posted by coolclouds

How about the distance difference between both the routes?

My last trip showed me that my drive from CV Raman Nagar (blr) to Edapaplly was 541 kms. Return trip from Edappally to CVR showed 545. I expected the Sathy route to be more in terms of distance but then it isn't much actually.(or may be I did some mistake in my trip distance calculation).

[sv1976]

Originally Posted by narayanang76

BHPians: Any latest updates on road condition of the following route to Kerala?

Bangalore - Mysore - Nanjangudu - Bandipur - Manjeri - Cherplassery - Ottapalam

Any recent updates please?

Google maps showing as 374 kms - is that accurate?

Narayanan

Mysore-Nanjangud is patched up but expect a slow drive here. Nanjangud-Muthanga is excellent. Some of wayanad hair-pins are bad. Adivaram-Thamarassery has few potholes. Thamarassery-Areecode-Manjeri is good. Not sure about Manjeri-Ottappalam.

Total distance should be around 440kms.