The art of travelling between Bangalore - Mangalore/Udupi

[prabhusati]

I started from Bangalore on Thursday, 30th April 2009. Planned to leave office by 5.30pm, but could leave only by 6.15pm. My brother joined me at Kodigehalli Gate at 6.45pm. Got stuck at BEL circle for some time. This location is a bottle neck in the evenings. Anyone planning to travel through this junction in urgency / emergency, better to avoid. The cops switch off the signal light and allow traffic only from BEL / Vidyaranyapura side and Mathikere side. Took the Jalahalli route to reach Tumkur road. Traffic was heavy but continuously moving. Reached the NH48 turn on Tumkur road by 8pm Took a break at 10pm at Kamat Upachar at Chennarayapatna Started off again at 10.30pmand reached home in Mangalore by 2.30am. Mining trucks were in large numbers on the Shiradi Ghat. Patch work is being done and the area where the concrete turns start and end have been repaired. These were the major problem areas previously on the ghat road. This repair work has again made driving a pleasure on this ghat stretch.

Gundya to BC Road is good, all the damaged curves have been repaired. But the question of whether all this repair of NH48 from Sakaleshpur to BC Road will last the monsoon season is a million dollar question. BC Road to Mangalore is horrible with umpteen number of diversions. Work is not progressing fast and come monsoons, this activity will come to a standstill creating a bigger mess. Most of the diversions have not been asphalted properly and with the heavy rains in coastal areas, this area will be a big crator in no time. Uppinangady to Mangalore used to take between 1 hour to 1 hour 15minutes a few years back, but now you need a minimum of 1 and half hour. Total distance was 356 kms and it required 23.29 litres of diesel (Shell ordinary diesel) giving 15.29 kms / litre. Driving speed did not exceed 100kmpl and AC was on all the time.

On the return journey (3rd May 2009), started from Mangalore at 12 noon. Lunch break was at Uppinangady (in-law's place) from 1.30pm to 2.30pm. Traffic on the shiradi ghat stretch was heavy. Mostly people returning from their trip to Dharmastala and Kukke Subramanya. Reached NH48-NH4 junction at 7.40pm and what a traffic jam!. This junction is closed and one has to take left and continue towards Tumkur for some distance and then take a U-Turn and come towards Bangalore. With no cops on duty, it was free for all. Vehicles going towards Tumkur were on the right side of the road, vehicles on the extreme left want to take the U-Turn, in between cab drivers honking away to glory and trying to get in if you give even a feet of gap in between you and the vehicle in front of you. Reached Jalahalli cross at 9.00pm with both feet aching because of the constant use of clutch & brakes. Took the Ayyappa temple road, dropped my brother at his home and managed to reach mine at 9.40pm. Have'nt removed my car since and will post the mileage during return journey once i fill diesel this week.

Some pics of NH48 below taken during the return journey.

[lohithrao]

prabhu good report man

am not very sure if the roads will remain the same after the rain starts, lets hope for the best..

ash_blore, the road condition is good to Kukke and Dharmasthala to Karkala was always good. just the roads are but narrow thats it.

Prabhu, OT - how does the Innova behave on the hilly roads? esp climbing up? and how about on bad roads?? keen to know

[Glifford]

Originally Posted by prabhusati

I started from Bangalore on Thursday, 30th April 2009. Planned to leave office by 5.30pm, but could leave only by 6.15pm..

Excellent report man! Very well documented and immensely helpful to people like me who want to do a Bangalore-Mangalore-Udipi sometime near the end of this month!

Must have taken a lot of effort!

Thanks!

[ravibhat]

This mansoon roads will be worst hit as good rain is expected this patch work won't last long. But mining activity has come down due to less profit (rates are down for iron ores).

If there are less heavy vehicles in these roads then roads may last long. Quality of repair work done is not again great so nothing changed.

Only NDA government at centre and BJP at karnataka can save state/national hughway roads in karnataka. But work execution will take time, as per their estimates expect best roads in Karnataka by May 2010.

I hope soon we get quality roads in Karnataka too like we see Tamil Nadu.

Ravi.

[gowda79]

Originally Posted by ravibhat

Only NDA government at centre and BJP at karnataka can save state/national hughway roads in karnataka. But work execution will take time, as per their estimates expect best roads in Karnataka by May 2010.

Ravi, any government the same thing will happen. All are corrupted and it is better we do not talk about them on this forum.

[prabhusati]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

am not very sure if the roads will remain the same after the rain starts, lets hope for the best..

Yes, it is only a hope, while reality may be something else. My personal opinion is that the Shiradi ghat stretch will again go bad in the monsoons. If the roads are good, driving is such a pleasure. But when you have roads with huge crators, you feel so frustrated.

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Prabhu, OT - how does the Innova behave on the hilly roads? esp climbing up? and how about on bad roads?? keen to know

You have to live with the fact that you cannot expect the Innova (diesel version) to respond like a petrol vehicle. You need to change gears appropriately to get the required momemtum. There were many instances on the ghat road climb on this journey. Since traffic was heavy, i was in a situation where we required heavy acceleration to quickly overtake. So, i had to change to even 2nd gear many times to get it.

My previous car is Maruti Omni and during the intitial days of owning a Toyota Innova, i did get caught (not by the cops) while overtaking and had to quickly brake and get behind the vehicle i was trying to overtake. Innova will not respond like the Omni in terms of quick accelaration when you need to overtake with another vehicle coming from the opposite direction. But now i know what my vehicle can deliver and i plan overtaking accordingly.

Otherwise, during the climb, the vehicle has enough power with full load also.

Regarding driving on bad roads, the vehicle's shock absorbers are good and have seen taxi Innova's driving fast on bad roads. No idea what will be the condition of the shocks after they complete the journey. But I do not feel that way and cannot abuse my vehicle and i drive slowly.

Originally Posted by Glifford

Excellent report man! Very well documented and immensely helpful to people like me who want to do a Bangalore-Mangalore-Udipi sometime near the end of this month!

Must have taken a lot of effort! Thanks!

You are welcome. This forum is about our passion for our automobile and helping another member with information that will help in their journey.

Best Regards/Satish Prabhu

[dkamath]

Had been to M'lore via. Madikeri/Sampaje ghats, and returned via. Sakleshpur/Shiradi ghats. Personal take is that the Madikeri route, apart from the bad patches around Madikeri and upto Sampaje, is still the better one among these two. The difference in distance for me is an additional 25 kms via. Madikeri, but still worth it as SH88 is wider and has reflective markers on the roads, while NH48 has none. Also, lesser traffic movement on SH88 makes it more safer to travel too.

[lohithrao]

Kamath, best part of madikeri route is you dont have to go through the hellish peenya road or put extra kms to avoid it...

next time i would take this route... hope can get to go asap

[aka_iitd]

I am also planning to go in August mid week during 15th(Xtra long weekend 13 to 16 Aug). My friend who recently visited Mangalore through Madikeri and said roads are good with some bad patches at Madikeri which he avoided while coming back by bypassing it by entering Madikere town and took Nisarga dham and Dubare route which opens at Kushal Nagar

[lohithrao]

aka, August is too far away my friend. July,August Monsoon will be very active so raods will be tested. you can expect lots of pot holes for sure

[marlinspike]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Kamath, best part of madikeri route is you dont have to go through the hellish peenya road or put extra kms to avoid it...

next time i would take this route... hope can get to go asap

I would suggest Madikeri route as well. You can avoid the heavy vehicles which will slow you down on hassan Road which on which four lane work is going on.

Also on madikeri route till you reach kushalanagar its a four lane and after madikeri the road is great to drive (I know it is atleast till kallugundi before sulya) as well.

The additional distance wont matter as you will still end up saving fuel and probably time not to mention the more relaxed and fun parts on this section,
Its safer as well.

[rajshenoy]

Awesome report..

U still managed to reach mangalore so fast even after clicking so many pics.

road looks good..but with all those mining trucks and monsoons, well hardly few months more

[lohithrao]

marlin,traveling on NH48 is no fun these days as i mentioned earlier it has lost its charm and sometimes it gets messy with heavy traffic and construction work.

With added chaos on peenya road it make sense for me living in east blore to go via Mysore rd, Madikeri road.

Originally Posted by marlinspike

I would suggest Madikeri route as well. You can avoid the heavy vehicles which will slow you down on hassan Road which on which four lane work is going on.

Also on madikeri route till you reach kushalanagar its a four lane and after madikeri the road is great to drive (I know it is atleast till kallugundi before sulya) as well.

The additional distance wont matter as you will still end up saving fuel and probably time not to mention the more relaxed and fun parts on this section,
Its safer as well.

[StarVegabond]

Hi

Thanks for the nice report and photographs and also good discussions on several routes. They explain a lot to a Newbie like mw.

I plan to tavel from Bangalore to Udupi to Ankola on 27th May.
I understood from the report that the road condistions through
Shiradi Ghat is ok now for the day drive. Even the road from
Mangalore to Udupi is okay.

I wanted to know how good is the condition of the road from
Udupi till Ankola. Has anyone travelled on NH17 recently. ?
any help/advice is welcome.
thanks in advance

[prabhusati]

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

Hi

I plan to tavel from Bangalore to Udupi to Ankola on 27th May.
I understood from the report that the road condistions through
Shiradi Ghat is ok now for the day drive. Even the road from
Mangalore to Udupi is okay.

I wanted to know how good is the condition of the road from
Udupi till Ankola. Has anyone travelled on NH17 recently. ?
any help/advice is welcome.
thanks in advance

Hello,
I travelled from Mangalore to Goa & back on 1st May 2009 and 2nd May 2009.

The road condition of NH17 from Mangalore to Goa is good after repair except a few stretches near Ankola. Portion of the road looks washed away due to heavy rain and heavier mining trucks, but nothing to deter anybody from travelling.

Moreover, if your destination is Udupi & then Ankola, you need not go to Mangalore. Either take a deviation after Gundya towards Dharmastala, Ujire and then to Udupi or via Belur-Kalasa-Kudremukh-Karkala-Udupi. If you search through various posts on this thread you will find the exact route info.