[srimath]

Ranjit,

The best route to Tirupati is Hyd-Kurnool-Nandyal-Kadapa-Rajampeta-Tiupati.

HYD - Kurnool
This is the superb NH7. There is a new rest near Jadcherla on your left. Also a GHAR dhaba on your right a few kms before Kurnool.

Kurnool - Nandyal - Kadapa
The road to Kadapa is through Kurnool town. You can also take the left under the second flyover on Kurnool bypass and then take a right to reach Kadapa road. Kurnool - Kadapa is being 4 laned. You need not go into Nandyal. There is a rock garden after Kurnool near Orvakal where there is an AP tourism rest. There is another Harita just before Kadapa at the junction where we take a left for Rajampet/Tirupati. Hotel Shankar Vilas in Allagadda is decent for snacks.

Kadapa - Tirupati
This is smooth 2L road, passing through Vontimitta, Rajampet, Koduru. There a quite a few speed breakers before & after each town/village.

[gajadonga]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Thanks,


-Would you reccomend going upto Anantpur and then taking the road to Kadiri-Madanapalle-Tirupati?Advantage of driving along the 4lane NH7 from Anantpur itself?

-If from Kurnool,any landmark from where the diversion to Kadapa is to be taken?

I do not think that there is added advantage by going through Ananthapur-Kadiri route.
It is a personal choice to avoid four laning route and go via Kadiri-Madanapalle.
The other details have been explained well by srimath

[gauravdgr8]

Originally Posted by srimath

Ranjit,

The best route to Tirupati is Hyd-Kurnool-Nandyal-Kadapa-Rajampeta-Tiupati.

HYD - Kurnool
This is the superb NH7. There is a new rest near Jadcherla on your left. Also a GHAR dhaba on your right a few kms before Kurnool.

Kurnool - Nandyal - Kadapa
The road to Kadapa is through Kurnool town. You can also take the left under the second flyover on Kurnool bypass and then take a right to reach Kadapa road. Kurnool - Kadapa is being 4 laned. You need not go into Nandyal. There is a rock garden after Kurnool near Orvakal where there is an AP tourism rest. There is another Harita just before Kadapa at the junction where we take a left for Rajampet/Tirupati. Hotel Shankar Vilas in Allagadda is decent for snacks.

Kadapa - Tirupati
This is smooth 2L road, passing through Vontimitta, Rajampet, Koduru. There a quite a few speed breakers before & after each town/village.

Originally Posted by gajadonga

I do not think that there is added advantage by going through Ananthapur-Kadiri route.
It is a personal choice to avoid four laning route and go via Kadiri-Madanapalle.
The other details have been explained well by srimath

I travelled to Trupati in January this year via the Ananthapur-Kadiri-Madanapalle route. I would prefer this route till the time, Kurnool-Kadapa route has completed 4 laning.

The Kadiri-Madnapalle route is smooth and being a 2 laned highway, you can still do speeds of 100 confidently.

On one of my trips to Kurnool-Belum Caves, the Kadapa route was full of diversions due to 4-laning. You could hardly drive at speeds of 80 for a couple of minutes due to diversions, although the surface was smooth.

However, once the 4-laning completes, Kurnool-Kadapa route will not only be shorter than the Kadiri-Madanapalle route, but also faster.

[gajadonga]

@gauravdgr8

From Hyderabad to Tirupathi via Anathpur and Kadiri what was the running time.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by gauravdgr8

I travelled to Trupati in January this year via the Ananthapur-Kadiri-Madanapalle route. I would prefer this route till the time, Kurnool-Kadapa route has completed 4 laning.

The Kadiri-Madnapalle route is smooth and being a 2 laned highway, you can still do speeds of 100 confidently.

On one of my trips to Kurnool-Belum Caves, the Kadapa route was full of diversions due to 4-laning. You could hardly drive at speeds of 80 for a couple of minutes due to diversions, although the surface was smooth.

However, once the 4-laning completes, Kurnool-Kadapa route will not only be shorter than the Kadiri-Madanapalle route, but also faster.

Gaurav,could you break down the approximate sector wise timing for the Kadiri route.Many thanks

[gauravdgr8]

Originally Posted by gajadonga

@gauravdgr8

From Hyderabad to Tirupathi via Anathpur and Kadiri what was the running time.

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Gaurav,could you break down the approximate sector wise timing for the Kadiri route.Many thanks

Hyderabad - Anantpur :

Left Hyderabad at 8 am and reached Anantpur at 12 pm. You have to cross Anantpur and go upto Rapthadu circle (10 kms approx), take a left from there go ahead for 3-4 kms, take a right u-turn to Tirupati highway.

Left Anantpur at 12:30 pm (some TDP procession which blocked expressway traffic) and reached Madanapalle at 3:30 pm with 1 fuel stop of 10 mins, 1 restroom stop of 10 mins. Ensure you do not get confused at Madanapalle and go further ahead towards Chennai, as that road will eventually have directions for Tirupati, however via a single lane village road which will slow you down. So stick to the State highway 42 till Madanapalle and then SH 71 till Tirupati.

From Madanapalle to Tirupati, it should take 2 hours as the road is very smooth and you don't find much traffic.

One should actually enjoy the Anantpur - Madanapalle route as it is a road with good countryside scenes and a railway line following you some 50-100 feet away. Be careful during the railway crossings as the road is a bit rough for that 100 mts.

So the final breakdown would be as follows:

1. Hyd - Anantpur: 4 hours (360 kms)
2. Anantpur - Madanapalle: 3 hours (174 kms)
3. Madanapalle - Tirupati: 2 hours (115 kms)

Fuel up at Anantpur as at Bathalapalli (Puttaparthi juncture) the pumps has power cut and therefore no fuel.

[sriswe]

Hi All,

Drove to Tirupathi on 13-06-2012 via the Ananthapur-Kadiri-Madanapalle route and returned to Hyderabad via Renigunta-Kadapa-Nandyal-Kurnool route on 17-06-2012. Following is the route update:

Hyd-Ananthapur-Kadiri-Madanapalle-Tirupathi:

1. Hyderabad (Raheja IT park @ 3.30 PM) - Ananthapur (9 PM), with 30 mins break for snacks. Excellent 4 lane all the way. Had dinner at some road-side dhaba at Ananthapur outskirts, break for 1 hour.

2. Ananthapur (10 PM) - Kadiri (12 AM), Road was decent with occasional rough patches, many unmarked speed breakers. Had taken a lodge near the bus-stand and stayed for night. Nothing great to say about the accomodation, it was ok for 6-7 hours of sleep ;-)

3. Kadiri ( 9.30 AM) - Madanapalle (1 PM), wife had driven around 50 KM's taking 1.5 hours :-(, roads were very good, however near/in villages, expect very bad roads for 200-300 mtrs. Had lunch at Madanapalle.

4. Madanapalle( 2 PM) - Tirupathi (3.30 PM, near Alipiri).

Total distance from Hyd to Tirupathi: ~650 KM's.
Travel time: 10 hours

Srikalahasti - Renigunta - Kadapa - Nandayl - Kurnool - Hyd.

1. Srikalahasti (4.30 PM) - Kadapa (8 PM), had dinner at Haritha restaurant near Kadapa bypass road.

2. Kadapa (9 PM) - Nandyal (12.30 AM), 4 laning in progess, however road surface is very smooth and I could maintain good speeds, lots of diversions , but need not slow at diversions as these were also good ( i mean proper smooth diversions). Only a few are unmarked.

3. Nandayl (12.30 AM) - Kurnool (2 PM), road surface is good, however before 30 KM's from kurnool near a small ghat, roads were narrow and diversions are unmarked, need to traverse carefully.

4. Kurnool (2 AM) - Hyd (Miyapur 7 AM), taken a nap for 1.5 hours near the Jadcherla toll plaza.

Total distance from Srikalahasti - Hyd : ~550 KM's
Travel time: 12 hours

I would recommend the Hyd-Kurnool-Nandyal-Kadapa-Rajampet-Tirupathi route as the road condition was very good (though the 4 laning is in progress) and the distance is short (appox. 90-100 KM's less than the Ananthapur route). In my case, having the Philips 100/90 bulbs with a relay helped in better visibility and this helped in handling the unmarked speed breakers/diversions. Also, I have downloaded Mobile maps from Map my India and installed on my HTC mobile, which helped a lot during the drive in identifying the curves, town bypasses etc.., will be useful specifically in nights where no one would be available to guide you on the roads.

Thanks,
Srinivas.R

[tckanth]

Hi All,
I'm planning a trip to Tirumala from Hyderabad on 4th of this month.
I'm planning to take the below route. Any suggestions?
Route1: Hyderabad - Nalgonda - Miryalguda - Dachepalli - Guntur - Ongole - Tirupati.

A friend of mine drove down the Hyderabad - Kurnool - Kadapa - Tirupati route and told me that the route from Kadapa is not great and recommended the above route. The last time I took Route 1 was in august last year and it was not good especially the Dachepalli to Guntur strech.

Any updates on the latest route condition will really be appreciated.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by tckanth

Hi All,
I'm planning a trip to Tirumala from Hyderabad on 4th of this month.
I'm planning to take the below route. Any suggestions?
Route1: Hyderabad - Nalgonda - Miryalguda - Dachepalli - Guntur - Ongole - Tirupati.


A friend of mine drove down the Hyderabad - Kurnool - Kadapa - Tirupati route and told me that the route from Kadapa is not great and recommended the above route. The last time I took Route 1 was in august last year and it was not good especially the Dachepalli to Guntur strech.

The HYD-VJA 4 laning is complete and is a dream run now a days.You should be able to do it in 3.5-4 hrs,so why do you want to go via Miryalguda?The only problematic section is the 6 laning between Ongole and VJA,but that is not a major issue-speeds of 80kph can still be maintained.I would reccomend the VJA route over the Miriyalguda route which was bad till about a month back.

Alternately the Kadapa route is fair (4 laning in progress),speeds of 60-80 can still be maintained.

[tckanth]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

The HYD-VJA 4 laning is complete and is a dream run now a days.You should be able to do it in 3.5-4 hrs,so why do you want to go via Miryalguda?The only problematic section is the 6 laning between Ongole and VJA,but that is not a major issue-speeds of 80kph can still be maintained.I would reccomend the VJA route over the Miriyalguda route which was bad till about a month back.

Alternately the Kadapa route is fair (4 laning in progress),speeds of 60-80 can still be maintained.

Thanks Ranjit, I completed my trip to Tirumala.
I took the vijayawada - Ongole - Nellore - Tirumala route.
Started from Hyderabad at 5AM, reached Vijayawada by 7:50, had breakfast and left for Nellore.
Reached Nellore by 12 and had lunch, let for Tirumala and reached there by 5PM.

Route till Vijayawada is simply superb, as good as Hyderabad - Bangalore.
Route from Vijayawada to Nellore is part of the golden quadrilateral, it might have been great few years ago but now, it's just average (or I might've felt so after driving on the BLR - HYD - VJA roads.
Route from Nellore to Tirupati also is fine, its not bad but its not great either, did not expect it to be any different as it is a state highway.

I was told that the route from Nandyal to Tirupati is not in a good shape and best avoided if we have an option.

[vnabhi]

@tckanth----are you sure you reached Vijaywada in 2 hours 50 minutes??

If yes, then do you stay in Vanasthalipuram or outskirts of Hyderabad?


This apart, it would have been nice if you had posted distances and driving time. 12 hours total seems to be a lot more than what I expected.

[gauravdgr8]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

@tckanth----are you sure you reached Vijaywada in 2 hours 50 minutes??

If yes, then do you stay in Vanasthalipuram or outskirts of Hyderabad?


This apart, it would have been nice if you had posted distances and driving time. 12 hours total seems to be a lot more than what I expected.

Seems like tckanth was flying and not driving .

Well you can easily maintain speeds of 120-130/hr and can do VJA in 3 hours which is 240 kms without any breaks. However it would surely be a tough ask.

The Hyd-Vijaywada highway is a runway and with a competent motor you can soar.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

@tckanth----are you sure you reached Vijaywada in 2 hours 50 minutes??

3hours non-stop is a reasonable time on the new road.Travel time has been cut down by exactly half with the 4 lanes,this road is just like the NH7 now,and suddenly one wonders where has all that notorious traffic gone!

[tckanth]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

@tckanth----are you sure you reached Vijaywada in 2 hours 50 minutes??
If yes, then do you stay in Vanasthalipuram or outskirts of Hyderabad?
This apart, it would have been nice if you had posted distances and driving time. 12 hours total seems to be a lot more than what I expected.

Hi vnabhi,
I stay near Tarnaka and I've started tracking time from L.B. Nagar.

Originally Posted by gauravdgr8

Seems like tckanth was flying and not driving .
Well you can easily maintain speeds of 120-130/hr and can do VJA in 3 hours which is 240 kms without any breaks. However it would surely be a tough ask.
The Hyd-Vijaywada highway is a runway and with a competent motor you can soar.

Thanks gauravdgr8.
Frankly speaking, I was surprised myself to see the time taken to reach Vijayawada. I used to travel a lot to Vijayawada (during 2008 - 2011) but my previous best was around 6 hrs.

In hindsight, I think I must thank the Scorpio guy who I was trying to follow, this is something which I normally do on my long trips (BLR-HYD / BLR-CHE / BLR-TPT), find a fast driver and try to keep up with him while maintaining sufficient distance. Break when he breaks and accelerate when he accelerates .

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

3hours non-stop is a reasonable time on the new road.Travel time has been cut down by exactly half with the 4 lanes,this road is just like the NH7 now,and suddenly one wonders where has all that notorious traffic gone!

That is exactly what I did. I wanted to cover as much distance as possible before the traffic starts and I was driving at around 120Kmph.
The only places where I had to slow down was at the toll gates, though they were not collecting any toll, they were noting the number and generating a receipt (trial run).

I've attached below a breakup of the travel distance and times.
reminds me of the "Hare and Tortoise" story .

[indian21r]

We did Hyderabad to Tirupati in a Innova on 22nd December and returned via the same route on 23rd December.

520 kms -Hyderabad (Kavuri Hills) to Tirupati (Bus Stand) 6 am -3:30 pm

Kavuri Hill -ORR - Kurnool (NH44) - 200km, 2.5 hours , 30 min breakfast @ Sri baba Ramdev hotel,at the toll booth near kurnool Fast service and good food. Excellent road all through, a toll of Rs 190 for drive. Kurnool Town surely needs a bypass. Very boring route scenery wise. Very sad to see the lack of farming on the land adjacent to highway.

Kurnool - Kadapa, NH-18, 200 km, 4 hours
4 laning of the roads in progress. Stretch between Kurnool and Nandyala is bad, rest of the route is manageable. Route is really scenic with green plants all around. Never realized that Rayalaseema is this beautiful in winter.

Kadapa - Tirupati -120 kms, 2.5 hours with 20 min lunch break
2 lane road with a good 3 feet shoulder. Except a few stretches between Kodur town and Tirupati, rest of the road is good. Speed breakers are an irritant though. A very scenic stretch with the forest cover and butter smooth black road.

Over all, Hyderabad to Tirupati will be less than 8 hour drive after the 4 laning is complete. This route is a lot shorter than the road via Vijayawada or Nagarjuna sagar.

Return also took similar time. Good amount of truck traffic was there on the 3 stretches.