[shankar.balan]

The Bangalore Mysore Road used to be such a pleasure to drive even 5 short years ago.
Now, there seems to be a mad rush and a "rat race" of sorts, whenever there is a long weekend, with so many young people, families and whatnot, getting into their spanking new cars and SUV's and making a beeline for the great Indian out of town road trip!

Lovely to see this increased affluence and increased mobility. But the biggest problem is that our roads and infrastructure are just not suited to supporting such a mass exodus all at the same time!

In consequence, I simply stay put in Bangalore these days whenever there is a long weekend, because the city per se has emptied out completely and there is no traffic to even speak of when these long weekends roll around!

[Blue_V]

I travelled from Mysore to Bangalore on last Sunday in the afternoon. It was a nightmare even on the Bannur Road. Nowhere as bad as on the regular route. I think a lot of people are starting to use this alternative route on weekends. Moreover its single lane. My leg was spared the effort, seems like Bannur road is also not an easy ride.

[BackInTheFold]

Originally Posted by HillMan

Ampere's route is good, but it is longer lonelier and lots of speed bumps. The route goes through villages. But if you like sedate driving watching greenery, this is a good route.

I suggest you hit the road by 6:30am for Mysore, the traffic situation on the Bangalore-Mysore road will not be an issue. Return to Bangalore start before 10am.

I understand. I might try the Bangalore-Mysore road on the journey to Mysore if we manage to leave early.

However, I'm constrained to returning from Mysore only in the early afternoon on Sunday. I read horror stories about this taking too much time and wanted an alternative. Since I did not want to explore routes on the return journey, I thought I could familiarize myself with the route on the way to Mysore. Hope that makes sense...

In any case, I'll log my experience after the trip

[ampere]

The route I proposed helps if your destination is North Bangalore. In that case its very good. But if you are heading to south Bangalore, it may not help much. Because the routes are longer. But surely it is stress free (But for the toll booths on the Bangalore-Hassan 4-lane).

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by prasadee

For people who can go to work a little late on Monday like 10.30am, does it make sense to start from Mysore on Monday morning at 7.00am? Would that be a two hour drive?

I have an acquaintance (in US) who is considering living in Mysore outskirts and commuting to Bangalore (Bannerghatta Road) for 3 days in a week, and work from Mysore (home) for the other 2 days. He would have a driver and would be on the road during weekdays. I am guessing the speed breaking barriers stay there during weekdays as well. Does anyone know?

Well, if you start at 6 am you may complete the journey in 2 hrs. You must remember there are all sorts of speed breakers on this road. By speed breakers, I include humps, barricades, animals, traffic in towns etc. That said, a 6 am start from Mysore will give you a stress free drive till Kengeri atleast. 7 am might be a tad late because, you will pass through rush hour traffic from Channapatna onwards all the way to Bangalore. Lots of people travel from the smaller towns to Bangalore daily. If you pass these towns before rush hour (usually after 8 am), then it is easy.

I have done the monday morning journeys from Mysore to Bangalore plenty of times now and the above suggestion is based on my experience.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by ampere

The route I proposed helps if your destination is North Bangalore. In that case its very good. But if you are heading to south Bangalore, it may not help much. Because the routes are longer. But surely it is stress free (But for the toll booths on the Bangalore-Hassan 4-lane).

How is the road condition between Nelligere and Srirangapatna? And how about the traffic?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

How is the road condition between Nelligere and Srirangapatna? And how about the traffic?

Typically on the lower side. But it also contains humps at many places.

[condor]

Originally Posted by ampere

The route I proposed helps if your destination is North Bangalore. .. But if you are heading to south Bangalore, it may not help much.

If heading to South Bangalore, then this route would be a no-no because of the traffic one will have to endure to cross the city

[sswaroop]

My friend has reached Calicut today morning and is planning to return to Bangalore on Sunday. His planned departure is in the morning after breakfast from Calicut and reach Bangalore by early evening. He stays near IIM on Bannerghatta road. Is there a better route than coming via Kalpetta - Sultan Bathery - Gundlupet - Mysore - Bangalore? I told him to check out the Bannur - Malavalli - Kanakpura road, but that is clearly not in good shape as per @Sunnyboi's post on this thread.

Is it a good idea to come through to Maddur on SH17 and then move towards Malavalli and reach via Kanakpura road and NICE road to his place? It adds about 40 kms extra to the journey than via Mysore - Bannur - Malavalli directly though. Or is it just better to rough it out for the stretch of road that is in bad shape on this route? He drives a Fiesta Diesel btw.

P.S. Those speed breakers on SH17 are horrible. It seems they have put a speed breaker such that from one speed breaker to the next there should be just enough time to accelerate smoothly from 0-100 and brake from 100-0

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by sswaroop

My friend has reached Calicut today morning and is planning to return to Bangalore on Sunday. His planned departure is in the morning after breakfast from Calicut and reach Bangalore by early evening. He stays near IIM on Bannerghatta road. Is there a better route than coming via Kalpetta - Sultan Bathery - Gundlupet - Mysore - Bangalore? I told him to check out the Bannur - Malavalli - Kanakpura road, but that is clearly not in good shape as per @Sunnyboi's post on this thread.

Is it a good idea to come through to Maddur on SH17 and then move towards Malavalli and reach via Kanakpura road and NICE road to his place? It adds about 40 kms extra to the journey than via Mysore - Bannur - Malavalli directly though. Or is it just better to rough it out for the stretch of road that is in bad shape on this route? He drives a Fiesta Diesel btw.

P.S. Those speed breakers on SH17 are horrible. It seems they have put a speed breaker such that from one speed breaker to the next there should be just enough time to accelerate smoothly from 0-100 and brake from 100-0

The best route is calicut-kalpetta-bathery-gundlepet-chamrajnagar-kollegala-malavalli-kanakpura-bangalore. When coming from calicut side , no need to go via Mysore at all.

As you reach the t junction at gundlepet from calicut side you turn left towards Mysore and then you need to immediately turn right for the road to chamrajnagar.

Gundlepet Ch nagar is slightly patchy and beyond that excellent roads minimal traffic and no humps. He can then get on to nice road from kanakpura road and then on to banneghatta road.

Additional notes. The only family friendly stop after gundlepet is nijaguna residency at chamrajnagar.

Gundlepet to nice road will take around 3.5- 4hrs of driving time.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by sswaroop

Is there a better route than coming via Kalpetta - Sultan Bathery - Gundlupet - Mysore - Bangalore? I told him to check out the Bannur - Malavalli - Kanakpura road, but that is clearly not in good shape as per @Sunnyboi's post on this thread.

This route is part of the Best route from Calicut to Bangalore, Mysore being the odd man
As @Rajeevraj mentioned, from Gundlupet take Charamarajanagar-Kollegal-Kanakapura-Bangalore-NICE Road-Bannerghatta Road, goodbye to Mysore completely on this route.
The Malavalli-Maddur road is not good so better to avoid.

[BackInTheFold]

Happy to report that my weekend drive was uneventful both ways, at least in part because this thread had "right-sized" my expectations. I chose to go with the normal route hoping that traffic would be light in the aftermath of the Dussera festivities.

We left around 6 AM on Saturday and were in Mysore around 9 after a 45 minute break in Maddur. We started around 1 PM on Sunday and reached Bangalore around 5 with an 1.5 hour break. Traffic was very light on the way up and not too worrisome on the way down.

As an aside, we drove to Bylakuppe on Saturday afternoon on the Mysore-Hunsur road. That road was in much better shape than the Bangalore-Mysore road, probably also because traffic there is not as heavy.

[guyfrmblr]

I took the Bannur route last night and could see that the tar was scraped for around 3-4 km between Bannur - Malavalli. Looks like they are widening the road. Hope they widen the entire stretch between Malavalli - Mysore. The road is very narrow at some places and it's difficult to overtake the occasional KSRTC buses.

[speedmiester]

Apart from the numerous road humps in place on SH17, new potholes are appearing in random places. On my drive from Mysore to Bangalore last Sunday, I saw quite a lot of them especially after Channapatna.

[sandeepmohan]

Colleague reports that his return trip from Mysore on the evening of Oct 15 was hell. Took 3 hours to cover 5km leading up to the NICE road turn off and this was at around 7pm. Ended up reaching home a little after 10pm.