Re: Bangalore to Velankanni : Route Queries Good news for those traveling to Velankanni from Trichy/Thanjavur. The highway via Thirvarur is finally fully done and open.
I traveled over the weekend and probably did it in the shortest time in all the years I have been going there and did it by using the original route via Salem - Namakkal - Musiri - Trichy - Thanjavur - Thirvarur - Nagapattinam - Velankanni. The roads were good all the way except for a short rough stretch nearing Musiri. 485 kms and it took me 8.5 hrs with a drive time of 7.5 hrs
I had decided to take the usual Mannargudi route and at the last minute decided to try my luck and continue straight
and was pleasantly surprised. . Traffic was low all the way which helped too. There was a small jam at Thiruvarur which has no bypass yet, but the two railway gates in the town are over bridges now.
The new highway from Thanjavur, bypasses the small towns on the old road except Thiruvarur. The new alignment ends around 10 kms before Nagapattinam and then continues on the old road. The best part is that although single lane, the road is well paved and marked and arrow straight on some stretches. Traffic is low anyway on this route and this new road makes it a nice road to drive on. As per a coconut vendor, the road was fully open since six months.
The Namakkal to Musiri stretch is upgraded too. From Namakkal to Thottiyam is 4 lane and post that it is a single lane to the Musiri bridge. The roads and well paved, but bumpy on the 4 lane stretch. Having traveled on the old tree lined road with buses coming head on in full speed, this road has made the journey on this stretch totally different now. But thanks to these newly widened stretches, i was able to cut down the overall journey time as these were the slowest stretches earlier.
On the return, to avoid the Musiri to Trichy stretch which is the old narrow and winding road, but well paved, I took the Trichy to Kuluthalai route and went over the bridge to continue on the widened stretch to Namakkal.
There was road works going on at a Thoppur ghats where I lost 45 minutes and then decided to take the new Dharmapuri to Hosur highway via Rayakottai hoping to save some time and escape the annoying traffic on the Krishnagiri route. I had done a ride few weeks earlier, so I knew some parts after Rayakottai were not complete. Being evening, the traffic in the opposite direction was heavy and looks like people have got to know about this alternate highway and are using it. I noticed few inter state Volvo buses too.
Rayakottai seems to be a bottleneck since all this traffic has to pass through the town and there was a km long jam in the opposite direction inside the town. The highway is quite scenic too and is actually a good alternative already to the Krishnagiri route.
The return journey took much longer because of traffic and all the jams, but the overall journey especially the onward journey was not tiring because of the good road conditions.
This is the Nagapattinam - Thiruvarur - Thanjavur stretch.
Last edited by tharian : 9th June 2024 at 23:32.
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