[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by ampere

2. How much on road condition we protect our vehicles from ?

If you are specifically referring to the huge speedbreakers installed on NH4 till Nelamangala, they actually start only after you cross Jalahalli Cross (8th Mile) signal. From here till the NICE section there are about 3 of them (opp to a Yogic Institute, IIRC)after which the route is common for everyone.

I work out of EC and at peak hours I do take the NICE till Gottigere from Tumkur Road touching NH4 at the Jalahalli Cross signal. IIRC, the speedbreakers over this 5-6 Kms stretch (till NICE) are only 2-3.

[roamingrao]

Originally Posted by ampere

How the road condition? I hear its too bad with lots of bottom scraping.

Majority of the bottom scrapers exist after the NICE road junction ( outbound road ), which in any case would be unavoidable.

The Yeshwantpur - Nelamangala toll road scheduled to open in the next couple of months would solve all these hardships. HOPE !

[ampere]

Originally Posted by roamingrao

Majority of the bottom scrapers exist after the NICE road junction ( outbound road ), which in any case would be unavoidable.

The Yeshwantpur - Nelamangala toll road scheduled to open in the next couple of months would solve all these hardships. HOPE !

So no point then for the morning part. Definitely when driving into bangalore in the evening time would be a life saver! Of that there is no doubt.

[INNOWAGON_CL]

I went to Banglaore and Coimbatore. Road is very good except for diversions between Harihar and Chitradurga, but still one could cruise in my Innova at 70-80kmph speed in this stretch. Bumpers are few and manageable. Ranebennur byepass should be made open soon.

The stretch beteen Bangalore and Coimbatore via NH7 and NH47 taking the Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Salem byepass is excellent.

All along the route, I filled diesel only from Reliance Petro Outlets. They are as follows:
1. Village Itkare - 350kms from Mumbai- 31kms ahead of Kolhapur.
2.

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by INNOWAGON_CL

All along the route, I filled diesel only from Reliance Petro Outlets. They are as follows:
1. Village Itkare - 350kms from Mumbai- 31kms ahead of Kolhapur.
2.

These things are open for business ? Last time I checked they were open till stocks lates and shut down couple of years back. I hope they are back with the quality petrol/diesel and the A1 joints. Are the A1 joints open as well ? Or only some outlets are operational ?

[INNOWAGON_CL]

Sorry, further to my earlier post the other Reliance Petro outlets open are:
2. Agadi Village Hubli - 607 km from Mumbai;

3. Neelmangala - 931 km from Mumbai;

4. Arasur, Palladam Coimbatore - 1361km from Mumbai;

On my return came via Mysore after sight seeing with family. Reliance outlets are:

5. Lakshmi Petroleum (Reliance Outlet) Srivasapura Mandya.

6. Arishna Kunte Village, Nelamangula Taluk.

7. Pethnaka NH4, Tal. Walwa, Sangli- 47Kms from Kolhapur towards Mumbai.

Spent Rs. 6880 for diesel (196lits of Reliance Diesel) for 2750kms of to and fro travel from Mumbai-Coimbatore-Mysore-Bangalore-Mumbai trip and Rs. 1391 toll from Mumbai-Coimbatore-Mumbai.

The route taken was NH 4 - for the route between Mumbai and Bangalore- GQ.

Between Bangalore to Coimbatore is NH 7 - Between Bangalore to Salem;

Took NH 47 - From salem to Coimbatore.

Took NH 207 between Coimbatore to Mysore- via Annur, Satyamangalam,Chamrajnagar, Kavalandi, (state road SH 57), Nanjungud,- NH212 Upto Mysore.

From Mysore to Bangalore- SH 33 - Required to slow down when approaching towns and bumpers. Otherwise, easily cruised between 80 to 90 kms and journey time was three hours for 140 kms. (except stoppages for one fuel halt, and sightseeing along the way).

From Shanti nagar to Nelmangala, prefered to take the NICE road early morning going westerly directing for 20 kms before heading north towards NH 4.

The Innova cruises easily between 100 - 120 kms but I preferred to take the speed between 80 to 90 kmph most of the time.

To avoid fatigue during the hot summer drive - drank 100ml water at halfhourly intervals, to avoid many breaks had fruits like oranges, bananas, and to avoid drowiness, always ate light. Always drove during the day and night halts were taken in Kolhapur and Bangalore during the to and fro journeys.

Upchar Kamat outlets were useful for snacks,/ light lunch.

I am thankful to HVK and all others in this forum because I could plan the trip because of the posts.

I also had a blackberry (google maps), mapmyindia navigator also to assist me as it was my first journey to South by road.

THANK YOU HVK for your logs, and all of you for your posts in the forum.

[INNOWAGON_CL]

Prince,

The fuel is supplied only by select outlets. On my return from Bangalore to Mumbai, only three reliance outlets were open out of six. A1 plazas are not open yet.

Innova gave a mileage of 14.15kmplit for the entire journey of 2750kms. Most of the time I had maintained speeds above 80kmphr and as it was day time travel, ACs was on. On the Pune Mumbai expressway it was above 110kmphr speed. The tyres had nitro filled and pressure was maintained at 34psi.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by prince_pervez

These things are open for business ? Last time I checked they were open till stocks lates and shut down couple of years back. I hope they are back with the quality petrol/diesel and the A1 joints. Are the A1 joints open as well ? Or only some outlets are operational ?

Reliance has opened with CNG/LPG & Diesel.No petrol.A1s still remain closed,though a handful of them have opened back under different management.

[INNOWAGON_CL]

Originally Posted by ampere

So no point then for the morning part. Definitely when driving into bangalore in the evening time would be a life saver! Of that there is no doubt.

When i had to reach Whitefield in Bangalore on 30th April, it took me only 12 hours to reach Nelmangala from Kolhapur ( with two hours halt time in between). Thereafter, took the right turn to NH 207 via Dobbasapete, Doddaballapur, Yelahanka, Hebbal, Mahadevapura, ITPL Main Road towards EPIP Zone. Just 550 metres from my destination, got stuck in a terrible traffic jam for one hour 15 mins!

What I found it amazing was that there were some home guards / traffic cops trying to discipline and divert the traffic and it was a disgrace that some motorists were bent on getting aggressive by not paying head to their directions!

Since I travel from Nariman Point, Mumbai to Goregoan by road daily and am used to such bumper to bumper traffic, my instinct told me to merely switched off my car engine and :-D saved fuel!

I guess in India, whichever place we go, unless it is early morning time between 2am to 3.30am, we shall encounter city traffic.

On highways, no time is free traffic! It is a matter of chance.

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by INNOWAGON_CL

Thereafter, took the right turn to NH 207 via Dobbasapete, Doddaballapur, Yelahanka, Hebbal, Mahadevapura, ITPL Main Road towards EPIP Zone. Just 550 metres from my destination, got stuck in a terrible traffic jam for one hour 15 mins!

See this post for bypassing Bangalore. It goes via Whitefield.

BTW, your post has 4 emoticons. Forum rules allow only 2.

[INNOWAGON_CL]

Originally Posted by sbraj

See this post for bypassing Bangalore. It goes via Whitefield.

BTW, your post has 4 emoticons. Forum rules allow only 2.

Here was a case where I had to stoppover at Whitefield during the night and hence, it was very near my destination at the place near Perot Systems. It was a traffic junction near Advaith Hyundai on ITPL Main Road where we were stuck for one hour 15 mins standstill.

Thanks for pointing out that forum allows only two emoticons. Your point is appreciated and noted. (Since I have joined this forum only in May 2010, I inadvertantly missed reading the rules.)

[ampere]

Folks,

Please use the following diagram as a reference to see, what are the entry and exit points for BLR bypass. Bypass needs multiple options.


http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ml#post1906455

High Level Summary:

1. HVK's method is for North-South NH7 entry and NH7 exit,
2. For most the South-East BLR quadrant NICE is a good option
3. For North West sector: NH207 through Dobbaspet/Doddaballapur/Yelahanka or Devanhalli
4. For North East sector: NH207/BIAL Road/NH4/Varthur Main Road (SH35 per Google Maps)/Sarjapur road.

We can compile a detailed plan/instructions for each of the sectors separately.

[paragsachania]

Alright folks now here is a very quick update as I've just woke up and wanted to share this news.

Did Bangalore-Pune on 4th June and back on 7th June.

Good News:
I travelled by the Ranibennur bypass while heading back to Bangalore on yesterday night. VOILA!!

Bad News:
The bypass is still in completion stage while the road surface on the both the sides has been completely laid with reflectors and markings done with. BUT, There is a diversion after you travel about 3-5 kms where one needs to get down from the bypass and join back again. The pain area of this diversion being that it is on a very bad road below the elevated bypass (that trucks use to ferry materials for contruction) which runs for about half a Kilometer (or probably less).

How did I get to know if it was functional?

There was a KA-41 Bolero and a KA-25 Scorpio ahead of me while we were all closing in on Ranibennur. Just when we approached the end of the 4 laned section to get into Ranibennur town, the Bolero quite confidently headed towards the new bypass (even though the board clearly mentioned "Road Closed"). The Scorpio which was local (now a Hubli registered Scorpio would be aware of its neighboring roads I guess?) also followed the Bolero and so did I.

My doubts began when I saw no oncoming traffic but still followed the two monsters ahead of me when suddenly the Bolero turned on its right indicator and gets down! The Scorpio follows and I had no choice. Now, after travelling about 300 meters next to the bypass the Bolero chap realises that its a dead end and I see his reverse lights and get the hints. I too back off and start heading back on the bad road. I allow the Bolero to move ahead & he again very confidently continues "further" on the bypass. Me and Scorpio do the same again. However, the Bolero then gets down on a similar deviation ahead and we all do the same and then manage to get onto the bypass again after about 500 meters of bad road below.
This time the bypass has a board that points an arrow towards Bangalore (which settled my confidence levels that the bypass was indeed functional else why such a board?).

The diversion road is bad in 2 ways :

Due to constant movement of contruction trucks and earth movers, the centre of this diversion is like a pot belly and It will surely scrape the underbelly of low floored sedans.

When you join back on the Bypass from this bad road, since the road surface is very thick, only SUVs and the likes will be able to manage this. My fully loaded WagonR with 4 adults and luggage just managed to pass this without any noise from beneath very very carefully taking one wheel at a time. I was thinking of sedans and their low height front bumpers when passing over these.

Positive hints:

The roadblocks for disallowing traffic has been placed in such a way that only cars, SUVs and possibly (Tempo travellers) can manage to pass through and since the road to join from the bad diversion back onto the bypass was on a higher incline, I am sure its the reason they closed it for trucks.

Should one take the bypass now onwards?

As I passed this place around 8-45pm, visibility wasn't great and I was following the pilots here. But I am somehow condifent that one can venture into the bypass and get out of the Ranibennur headache in a jiffy. To me, it was just 10 mins including the wrong deviation we took to get out of the bypass. The pain areas have been explained above. With utter care one can manage to take this bypass and save a lot of time but I'm still skeptical on Sedans.

Status on the bypass:

There is plently of work, especially on the bridge joining the highway (Bangalore side) and from what It looked like, It should take another month of two for sure.

Updates other than the bypass:

Tumkur - All bridges open both ways except one where 2 sides of the traffic share the bridge. Will take 8-10 mins to join back the toll road.

Chitradurga - All bridges open, both directions. Will take 8-10 mins to exit the town.

Chitradurga - Davanagere - Work in progress, 70-80% sections marked completely. Should get completed sooner.

ROBs - Work seems to be in full swing but it will surely take another 2-3 months easily.

Just realised that my quick update almost becomes a travelogue now with all details.

[hvkumar]

Great update!
Has the Harihar-Davangere bypass taken a beating in the rains? And road is tarred?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Great update!
Has the Harihar-Davangere bypass taken a beating in the rains? And road is tarred?

Not at all. From my earlier trip in April, I saw no difference in the road condition on this stretch. It is very much driveable. Even I was expecting bad roads post rain.