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-   -   Bangalore - Thiruvannamalai : Route Queries (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/31032-bangalore-thiruvannamalai-route-queries-32.html)

I tried this route, and here are the updates:

1. The roads near Uthangarai, Mathur and Singarapettai were in bad condition for quite some time, and they continue to remain so.
2. A lot f work has been completed in the K'giri - Mathur stretch, and more work is in progress. A bit of work completed in Mathur - Singarapettai stretch.
3. The work includes new bypass roads. But not all of these are opened for traffic yet.
4. Unlike the previous occasion (6 months back) when the car (Beat) bottom scraped a couple of times, this time no such problems.

Took me just over 2.5 hours to cover the stretch from K'giri to Tiruvannamalai.

Its been ages since this road has been in shambles! I sincerely hope they build this up fast and move on to section beyond (other areas)

The first time I drove K'giri-Mathur-Uthangarai-S'pettai-T'malai, the entire stretch was in shambles, and it took over 4 hours. After that, for K'giri-T-malai, it was either Karimangalam-Karur or Bargur-Tiruppattur.

After hearing that the K'giri-Mathur-Uthangarai route has been relaid from several people, gave it a try in mid-2017, and found the roads to be in decent condition. The roads were wider and had excellent finishing in some sections. This became the preferred route because it had only a handful of densely populated areas compared to the Harur or Tiruppattur routes (translates into lesser speed humps and lesser local small vehicles, so the drive is easier). I used to consistently cover the K'giri-Mathur-T'malai stretch within 2 hours.

The good thing about the completed road work till then was that it has held well over 4-5 years, despite the usual quota of heavy vehicles and seasonal rains. The below section of road is an example.



In mid-2021, major road works started in the K'giri-Mathur stretch. In one section, the existing roads were completely dug up. This, combined with water-loging after rains, made the drive very difficult, and I returned to the Bargur-Tiruppattur route. But now that section is completed. The present work is only for relaying and widening existing roads and new bridges.





These roads are much much better than they were, say, 9-10 years back.

In its present state, it is a mix of excellent roads, OK-ish roads (a bit bumpy because of small craters or patched sections, like Old Madras Road in Bangalore), and really bad roads (about 15% of the K'giri-T'malai stretch). It might be better to avoid the above stretch if:

• it is a low-slung car
• the tyres are in bad condition
• the suspension is weak
• one just hates driving on bad roads

So which is the preferred route from Krishnagiri now ?
karimangalam-harur
OR
bargur-tiruppatur

Personally I have been taking the NH77 Mathur-Uthangarai-Singarapettai route for over 5 years. I find it easier to deal with the bad sections on this stretch compared to the numerous speed humps and the traffic on the other two routes mentioned.


Regarding the two alternatives: both these routes have thickly populated areas for most part. Therefore, expect many speed humps as well as good traffic density.

Bargur-Tiruppattur has good,wide roads. Tirupattur-Singarapettai has narrower, winding, picturesque roads. It is a good choice, and it adds only 15 km to the trip compared to NH77.

Karimangalam-Harur - the last I did this route was over 7-8 years back, so someone with recent updates might be of more help. As far as I remember, it had narrow but good roads.

So, do you still suggest this regular Mathur-Uthangarai-Singarapettai route for my trip (on 13th April) ? Or, to go with Bargur-Tirupattur-Singarapettai route?

My personal choice is the regular route, because for me a bit of bad roads is easier to handle compared to numerous speed-humps and local traffic in the other options.

But do keep in mind that the roads can be very bad in some stretches on the regular route. If you are not comfortable with that, then Bargur - Tirupattur is a good alternative, with good roads for the most part. The extra distance is less than 20 km compared to the regular route.

Sorry if this has been asked before in other threads -
How is the Chittoor - Vellore route to reach Tiruvannamalai ? GMaps shows a difference of ~30 mins compared to Hosur - Krishnagiri route. Last week, on my trip to Tirupati, I found the route till Chittoor to be excellent with sparse traffic. I had to turn left for Tirupati, but not sure about the road conditions after the right turn towards Vellore-Tiruvannamalai.
Since I stay close to Kolar highway, will Chittoor route provide any specific advantage - lets say, to beat the Sunday evening traffic on the return journey compared to Hosur route?

[1] Around Katpadi, some sections of the roads are narrow. Unless one travels during non-peak hours, slow-moving traffic can be expected.
[2] If using Google Maps, watch out for being directed through no-entry roads, or through short-cuts that are narrow for cars.
[3] The additional traffic density on Sunday evenings is mostly caused by more cars. The number of trucks remains more or less the same as on other days. So, at most it might take 5 to 10 minutes extra to cover K'giri to Hosur.

A brief update from our weekend trip to Tiruvannamalai.

For the onward journey, took the Bargur - Tirupathur - Singarapettai - Chengam route.
Interestingly, instead of touching Bargur and taking Bargur-Tirupathur road, gmaps took us through Pudupettai road to reach Tirupathur without going through Bargur itself. May be I would have missed a turn. Looks like the roads have been freshly laid in most parts, the entire stretch was smooth and it was a very nice comfortable drive. The roads are broken around Singarapettai, but that is only for a short stretch of ~1-2kms. Started at 6.30 AM and reached TVM by 12 noon with a break at Murugun Idli for breakfast.

btw, when we add a waypoint, gmaps takes us right through the town centre and navigates through difficult narrow roads to get out of the town before hitting the major road for next destination, where as it is easy get to onto this road directly without this mess. Happened in Tirupathur, but luckily a traffic police woman helped us get onto the correct road without going too much inside the town. Any gmaps tips to avoid this?

For the return journey, ideally should have taken the same route back which gmaps was also suggesting. But instead followed a veteran in our group who frequently visits TVM and took the regular NH77 route via Uthangarai on his assurance that the route is fine and manageable. Oh man! the entire route is work in progress with alternating good , bad, worst sections and it requires lots and lots of patience and a good suspension!!. Started at 11.30 AM and reached home by 5 PM with a lunch break in between. Since overall journey time is same between the two routes, I felt Tirupathur route is better for stress-free driving.

Stayed at Blue House, Tiruvannamalai. Clean house, nice locality, direct view of the hill, just off the main road with easy access to the ashram, temple and the Girivalam route. Sathvam restuarant in Sparsa resort next door offered good food.

Since we had a TVM veteran in the group, he took us on a spiritual journey of Tiruvannamalai. Visited various ashrams, jeeva samadhis, few living yogis while doing the Girivalam in the evening/night and visited the temple next morning. Overall it was a humbling experience to be in such a sacred place.

Travelled to tvmalai on June 4th and returned on June 6th.
My usual route has always been karimangalam-morappur-harur-theerthamalai-tvamalai.
But considering the recommendations on this thread tried the below for comparison.

Onward Journey June 4th Saturday.
Bangalore(8:00AM)-Bargur-Tirupattur-Singarapettai-tvmalai (12:30)
The roads are freshly laid, route is shorter but the only complain I personally had was too much of town traffic to navigate. Probably it's the time I left Bangalore and I entered these towns during business hours :)
And quite some speed breakers too, but nothing that will scrape even a low slung vehicle.

Return Journey June 6th Monday.
Tvmalai (4AM )-theerthamalai-harur-morappur-karimangalam-Bangalore (9AM)
My favorite route and remains the favorite still. Possibly another 30min of extra drive, but far less town traffic and scenic drives. And the early morning start is to offset the electronic city to bangalore north traffic times. I wade through horrid traffic even at such early hours.

To conclude. Both routes are still the B.E.S.T ways for Bangalore-Tiruvannamalai. My preference slightly tips to the karimangalam route primarily because it's my usual route and another main reason is very little town traffic to manage.

Updates on the K'giri - Uthangarai - S'Pettai stretch:

[1] Work has been progressing, 2-3 bypasses have been opened for traffic.

[2] There is a railway under bridge at Samalpatti (the only underpass on this route). As per local people, there is heavy water accumulation in this underpass when it rains, with enough water to stall cars. The Samalpatti bypass is not complete yet. Not sure about any decent alternative roads if the underpass gets flooded.

[3] Till now, half the width of the road used to be blocked for relaying while traffic continued on the other half. Now, work has started is on roads that are not wide enough for allowing this. Therefore, the entire road has been dug up by JCBs.

[4] Besides, some parts of the road which were already bad have become worse due to the rains.

For the next few weeks it might be better to avoid this route.


Meanwhile, the bad stretches near Singarapettai have been relaid.

Visited Thiruvannamalai on the occasion of Guru Purnima. Update on road conditions below.

Onward Journey - July 12th. Bangalore-Morappur-Harur-Tvmalai
Bangalore North (5:15AM )- Tvmalai (10:30AM) ( 20 min break )
Excellent roads. Absolutely nothing to complain about. Expect speed breakers when villages are passed.

Return Journey - July 14th. Tvmalai-Singarapettai-Tirupattur-Bargur-Bangalore
Tvmalai ( 4:00 AM ) - Bangalore North ( 8:30 AM ) ( 20 min break )
Excellent roads. Shorter route. Expect slightly rough patches here and there on chengam road until the turn towards tirupattur. Nothing to really complain about.

I highly recommend Bargur-Tirupattur route ( Except that I don't use it myself :p . I prefer my usual route of Morappur-Harur-Theerthamalai. I love the early morning fields and mountain views )

I am undertaking a travel this weekend to Tiruvannamalai from Bangalore. From all the recent posts, looks like the route to take is as follows:
Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Bargur - Tirupattur - Singarapettai - Chengam - Tiruvannamalai

Off topic, I am not having great success with google maps. Not sure if there is a separate thread for this. The challenges that I am facing:

1. When I select a route that is not provided by google map, the route typically is through the city/town and not through bypass or ringroads. Example: If I were to take the Vellore route, I shows the route through Vellore (this is more aggravated when using mobile phone. When using laptop I could drag and drop the map, it does a good job then)
2. Select a non default route, sending the link to my phone or messaging the link does not work. When I open the link it invariably displays the default route that it has picked.

As of now the best route is K'Giri-Bynapalli-Pudupettai-Tirupathur-Thiru

https://goo.gl/maps/3xLRWhEAchnFM4Gv7