[mooza]

Shiradi Ghat witnessed an accident a couple of days ago, in which a Bangalore youth sadly lost his life, and some others were injured (see link below). This discussion should be in the accidents section, but I thought some of our Shiradi Ghat travellers will be in a better position to throw some light on this :

Youth from B’lore killed in road accident

There are hardly any details in the above report. Any information regarding how the accident happened ?

[for_cars1]

Originally Posted by Sudhindra

Looks like i am very much confused in choosing between shirdi ghat and charmudi ghat. Can someone please gudie me the best route and also with the approx kms when taken these routes.

Originally Posted by funda2max

Just came back from Udupi/Mangalore today morning. I took Shiradi ghat (NH48) in both ways, it is in excellent condition. While going to Udupi on April 1st, i started around 1 PM and reached Udupi by 8 PM. Total distance : 421 KM from IIM Bangalore.

All path holes have been filled up and some areas got newly laid roads in the ghat section.

Shiradi Ghat NH 48 is in its best shape now since recent times. I took this route last week and road work was in full swing, only about 3 to 4 kms in total of bad roads where its manageable for any car if driven slowly.

Totally it took about 6 and half hours of sedate driving between Pumpwell and Nelamangala (excluding break)

I guess it will stay good until the monsoon arrives this year and hope it doesn't go back to its old sorry state (now that the mining lorries are not plying and if they are continued to be banned, the possiblity of the road staying good through the monsoons is high)

Posting some photographs which I took of the bad stretches.

[funda2max]

Originally Posted by for_cars1

Shiradi Ghat NH 48 is in its best shape now since recent times. I took this route last week and road work was in full swing, only about 3 to 4 kms in total of bad roads where its manageable for any car if driven slowly.

Totally it took about 6 and half hours of sedate driving between Pumpwell and Nelamangala (excluding break)

I guess it will stay good until the monsoon arrives this year and hope it doesn't go back to its old sorry state (now that the mining lorries are not plying and if they are continued to be banned, the possiblity of the road staying good through the monsoons is high)

Posting some photographs which I took of the bad stretches.

Sadly, i saw quite a lot of mining lorries (KA-22, KA-25, etc..) with typical red color plying through Shiradi ghat. Some were TATA, Ashok layland and other were Volvo, AMW (Biggies with 12-16 tyres). We can't expect them to keep quite

[Rajesh K R]

Originally Posted by mooza

Shiradi Ghat witnessed an accident a couple of days ago, in which a Bangalore youth sadly lost his life, and some others were injured (see link below). This discussion should be in the accidents section, but I thought some of our Shiradi Ghat travellers will be in a better position to throw some light on this :

Youth from B’lore killed in road accident

There are hardly any details in the above report. Any information regarding how the accident happened ?

I also read about the same in a Kannada newspaper. The report said that the car ( Indica) fell into the Kempuhole stream near Sakleshpur while trying to avoid an oncoming vehicle at a curve.

[bullinb]

Originally Posted by funda2max

Sadly, i saw quite a lot of mining lorries (KA-22, KA-25, etc..) with typical red color plying through Shiradi ghat. Some were TATA, Ashok layland and other were Volvo, AMW (Biggies with 12-16 tyres).

Slightly OT. Saw many of them on BH road (Tumkur - Shimoga) as well. Most of them were empty. Wondering where are they headed

[funda2max]

Originally Posted by bullinb

Slightly OT. Saw many of them on BH road (Tumkur - Shimoga) as well. Most of them were empty. Wondering where are they headed

May be heading to Bellary... I saw too many new trucks on Chitradurga - Hospet route. May be it goes via Shimoga?

[prozack]

tks to funda2max and advise frm other bhpians,left @ 6am and was reached parkala @ 1 pm, route - vijayanagar- magadi-kunigal-hassan-sakleshpur-shiradi-dharmasthala-karkala-parkala - total driving time - 6.5 hours , distance covered 390 kms..drive = smooth as silk..some patches were rough on magadi road near sunkadkatee..and some patches between sakleshpur and shiradi ..but overall 9.5/10 for route and drive..

Tks to a fellow bhpian- enjyd back to back Russel peters dvd..had a blast !!

Return route planned on sunday - Parkala - karkala - kudremukh-kalasa-kottigehara-belur-hassan-kunigal-magadi-vijayanagar..any suggestions are welcome ...tks

[Sudhindra]

Finally we did buy this contessa and did a drive from mangalore to bangalore.
Choosed shiridi ghat. We left yesterday at 11:45 am from pumpwell circle and reached bangalore(yelhanka) at 7:10 in the evening including breaks at gundya, sakleshpur, kunigal. Thanks to the excellent road grip, breaking and pickup in the conty, we just took about 2 and half hours to reach sakleshpur. The road condition in ghat is pretty good except from mangalore to BC road. Yes, there were good number of trucks plying on this road. we choosed magdi to reach bangalore.

[recshenoy]

2.5 hours to sakleshpur is nice man! what is the top speed you managed on Conty?

OT:

What is the engine capacity of Conty and the FE

[Sudhindra]

@recshenoy: In ghat, it was 60-80km, and after hassan it was 70-120km, top speed was 125km.

Engine capacity is 1800 cc with 75bhp. FE is 12-14 on highway depending on driving.

[kadri007]

Came back this morning from Mangalore. And at last after an year the roads are 98% back to normal condition.

While going took the Sugama Tourist bus left at 11PM from Bangalore and reached Mangalore by 7 AM. The bus took the Magadi road. While talking to the driver he said the Nelmangala road is still in bad condition and they save half an hour by taking this route.

The Shiradi ghat at last is in good condition. Now there are no roller coaster rides and buses are just flying down the ghat.

BC Road - Mangalore is almost 90% complete and easily drivable. No very bad stretch's.

Atlast the private bus operators are adding new buses to thier fleets. I found many new buses from Sugama, Durgamba, Pragathi, Vishal Tourist, etc. All brand new and bus agent was saying still many more new buses would be adding soon.

The KSRTC Volvo bus are a grand sucess between Mangalore and Manipal and are going standing. Also Manipal - Mangalore - Kasargod Volvo bus service has started.

And VRL has introduced Isuzu bus services between Mangalore and Mumbai.

[dkamath]

We had been to native over the weekend too. We got the Sugama 'Z' to M'lore and the VRL Volvo on the way back. Though there's nothing special to talk about Sugama, the GPS on my phone showed the max. speed it could do to 82kmph, but the noise was frightening, making it feel like it did over 100 .
The VRL Volvo has the semi-sleeper kind of seats, with cushion rest for the legs. It's got 2 drivers who swap seats at Kamat, Udaipur. But it takes the Nelamangala route to B'lore, eating up precious time.

About the Kasargod-Mannipal (yes, it's spelt that way on the electronic display) Volvos, i assume that they must have flicked them from the BMTC fleet. The registration numbers are from a sequence to those running here in B'lore, and the white oval stripes are still silhouetted under the new red paint that has been applied over them. They also have the rear view cameras on them, which the other buses flicked from Mysore Nagara Saarige's don't have, hehe.

[_chikku]

Drove my Zen till Puttur last saturday and came back. Shiradi ghats are good now. Bad patches start after Gundya. Complete asphalting of roads has been started from Nelyadi side, which may be over by the commence of monsoon.
Sadly mining trucks and tankers are in rage

[mooza]

Hi all, Shiradi ghat back to near normal is the best piece of news in recent times Hope the repairs last for 5 years at least.

Just one query : Has the entire ghat stretch been repaired with cement concrete, or is the concrete only at the turnings ?

[Sudhindra]

^^^^ Its only at the turnings..