[Aditya]

The Bangalore - Chennai Expressway thread - Posts moved to a new thread.

[nagarjun]

A bit of short sight on the side of authorities to make it a 4 lane from the initially proposed 6 lane road. I heard the bridges are all built for 6 lanes and a new lane would be added later towards the median.
But given the traffic density on both the existing highways, 6 lanes would have been good from the start.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by nagarjun

A bit of short sight on the side of authorities to make it a 4 lane from the initially proposed 6 lane road. I heard the bridges are all built for 6 lanes and a new lane would be added later towards the median.
But given the traffic density on both the existing highways, 6 lanes would have been good from the start.

Yes there is plenty of room for expansion. But if you see the way this road is built, due to limited entry exits, there will also be a restriction on how many people will take this road. Both the Old Madras route and Krishnagiri-Vellore routes appear crowded due to lot of local traffic using this road. But for this expressway, the use case is quite narrow, and perhaps thats the reason the current projections did not really warrant a six lane carriageway from the beginning.

[anandhsub]

So when the KA stretch opens in a month or so.. Is this how one would connect to the Chittoor highway?



The connecting road ( although marked as NH75) looks quite narrow and I am not sure there will much in terms of a time saving given the current stretch from Hoskote to Mulbagal is quite smooth already

[binand]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

The connecting road ( although marked as NH75) looks quite narrow and I am not sure there will much in terms of a time saving given the current stretch from Hoskote to Mulbagal is quite smooth already

One could also take the NH 75 the opposite way and join the other Bangalore-Chennai highway via Gudiyattam-Pallikonda. Might work out to be shorter and a better time-saver.

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by binand

One could also take the NH 75 the opposite way and join the other Bangalore-Chennai highway via Gudiyattam-Pallikonda. Might work out to be shorter and a better time-saver.

Yes my bad, it works out to 30kms and 45 mins shorter to Chennai.

But this goes through a forested section. I hope there is no restriction on night traffic.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Yes there is plenty of room for expansion. But if you see the way this road is built, due to limited entry exits, there will also be a restriction on how many people will take this road. Both the Old Madras route and Krishnagiri-Vellore routes appear crowded due to lot of local traffic using this road. But for this expressway, the use case is quite narrow, and perhaps thats the reason the current projections did not really warrant a six lane carriageway from the beginning.

Originally Posted by nagarjun

A bit of short sight on the side of authorities to make it a 4 lane from the initially proposed 6 lane road. I heard the bridges are all built for 6 lanes and a new lane would be added later towards the median.
But given the traffic density on both the existing highways, 6 lanes would have been good from the start.

In addition to what audioholic mentioned-The Chandapura-Dharmapuri NH844 will also be completed in another year or so. This means that all Bangalore traffic headed towards Salem and beyond can take this route and avoid Hosur-Krishnagiri. So this will also take away a lot of traffic from Hosur Krishnagiri route and it becomes almost a Chennai side dedicated route.

Also, the STRR links the New expressway, the existing OMR, NH44 and NH844. So it should disperse the traffic neatly at the Bangalore end.

Having said that, I also do feel they should have done 6 lanes and left only the 8 lane conversion for later expansion.

[RGK]

Still reckon the best way to get to Hoskote is through "Ranipet - Chittoor - Palamaner - Mulbagal - Kolar" even though the Hoskote - V.Kota route is finished. Is my understanding, right?

OR

Can we try "Pallikonda - Gudiyatham - Pernaampet - V. Kota - Hoskote" ?

[binand]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

But this goes through a forested section. I hope there is no restriction on night traffic.

As far as I know, all night traffic restrictions are in Karnataka state, and that too in Chamarajanagar, Mysore & Coorg districts.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by RGK

Can we try "Pallikonda - Gudiyatham - Pernaampet - V. Kota - Hoskote" ?

Please also note: Gudiyatam is a getting solid bypass on NH75. Earthwork already in the works.

How to get to the expressway: For South Bangalore My suggestion would be Whitefield/Sarjapur folks drive to Chikka Tirupati and then get on Baglur-Malur SH. This will cut the STRR. Get on to STRR and then exit to the Chennai Expressway at Hoskote. Today any access to STRR for south Bangalore folks is a big detour. So we need to find the least impedance route to the either Hoskote interchange or STRR connect (Mostly west/north Bangalore).

[srvm]

Originally Posted by RGK

Still reckon the best way to get to Hoskote is through "Ranipet - Chittoor - Palamaner - Mulbagal - Kolar" even though the Hoskote - V.Kota route is finished. Is my understanding, right?

Yes, you are right. Though, as of today, the diversion near Zion Hill Church/Bomma Samudram railway crossing at TN-AP border is a bottleneck.

Originally Posted by RGK

Can we try "Pallikonda - Gudiyatham - Pernaampet - V. Kota - Hoskote" ?

You can try. I did this route 2 years ago, on a whim, when my destination was Virinchipuram not Chennai. Roads weren't bad. Some places there was widening and asphalting going on. The forest section near Bathalapalli was short, beautiful and ok on the whole. Crossing Gudiyattam (crowded) and Pallikonda (narrow roads) will consume time. You will not get any time benefit compared to Palamner-Ranipet route.

The other option - Mulbagal - Palamner- Gudiyattam isn't that great either. Poor roads inside AP at the ghat section. Generally, desolate with minimal traffic. Prone to truck accidents / toppling in the ghats.

Oh, both of the above routes have minimal restaurants / comfort break stops for family.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by RGK

Can we try "Pallikonda - Gudiyatham - Pernaampet - V. Kota - Hoskote" ?

Barring the ghat, the plain roads are wide 2-lane.

So it might be worth except for a south Bangalore destination when the expressway opens.

In the short term, it will avoid the Ranipet-Chittoor and Krishnagiri-Hosur-ECity construction mess.

It would be avoidable at busy times.

[Karjun]

Hopefully the expressway opens up soon, would make my drive to Bangalore a breeze. Drove the Bangalore-Mysore expressway a few months back and it was without a doubt one of the best expressway/highways in the country. Hopefully the quality of infrastructure is maintained by the Gadkari administration. Would make my upcoming Kochi-Chennai-Bangalore journeys a walk in the park.

[nagr22]

Originally Posted by Karjun

Hopefully the expressway opens up soon, would make my drive to Bangalore a breeze.

The expressway enters bangalore near hoskote where it joins with the existing 4 lane highway from Chittoor. The Peripheral Ring Road too joins the city at this junction. Has the road from this junction all the way till Bangalore city center widened by 3x to handle the 3x traffic that is expected? It may not be 3x, could be more or could be less but it is definitely greater than 1x. Has there been any infra upgrade done to handle the extra traffic after hoskote? After crossing this intersection and before entering the city there's a toll gate which already sees kilometer long queues during long holiday travel period. Have extra toll lanes added to handle the additional traffic?

The answers to my questions are a big NO and once opened to public, this junction will become just like Nelamangala-NICE road intersection. If one is thinking they don't have to enter city and only need to interchange from this Eway to the PRR using the clover leaf interchange, please remember the great lane discipline followed by our fellow drivers who will ensure even the exit lanes get blocked eventhough they wish to go straight into city or vice versa(similar to Nelamangala-NICE).

I am sorry to sound pessimistic, this just another massive traffic hotspot waiting to be inaugurated. I will be happy to be proven wrong as I live within 10kms from this place and frequently travel to Chennai.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by nagr22

I am sorry to sound pessimistic, this just another massive traffic hotspot waiting to be inaugurated. I will be happy to be proven wrong as I live within 10kms from this place and frequently travel to Chennai.

Increase in traffic can be debated. Firstly because the in coming traffic from Chennai coming via Chittoor/Expressway side is same. So that will get redistributed on to these two routes.

The only addition we are talking are the ones who will probably move from Vellore-Krishnagiri-Hosur to the expressway.

Now who will be these people? If these are folks who stay in Central/North Bangalore then they probably are already taking the Chittoor road. If the folks are from south Bangalore, then I guess they may exit before Hoskote at STRR towards Hosur and probably find an alternative way to south Bangalore than going via KR Puram and ORR mess (This is debatable yes).

I am not predicting a big hotspot but it remains to be seen how this will pan out. For many who stay in south/south-west Bangalore, it would be still easy to hit Krishnagiri rather than take long time to reach Hoskote. So I assert we still need to see how the Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri and Bangalore-Dharmapuri comes to Bangalore-Krishnagiri-Chennai rescue. If that eases the south bound traffic, I wont predict a traffic hotspot at Hoskote.

Anyways all theory will go the wind once every thing opens and we see actual stats!