The art of travelling between Bangalore - Mangalore/Udupi

[Daddy]

Originally Posted by Daddy

thanks addy/ravi for the details.
will update more once i am back from the trip.

Just back from the trip.. Blr - madikeri - mudbidri - agumbe - chikmagalur - Blr. 30 kms before & after Madikeri is bad..and a few pot holes near Agumbe ghat..rest of the entire stretch is good. It was a relief to see cream road from Sampajie till Bantwala as we did that part in dark & rain.
The dug up stretch of hassan road was irritating.. the traffic in that road is double than of 3 years back..it has become like another mysore road.

3 days it rained non-stop (real non-stop) and i assume it is still raining there..and we managed to scale Thadiyandamol as well which was deserted within blasting wind & rain.

[lohithrao]

Daddy great to know you had a nice drive, will be heading to Mangalore probably next week hope to see lots of rain

[nbr]

I received these photos through email and when i checked with the forwarder ,he told he got it from Mangalorean.com & Gulfkannadiga.com . These pictures were really meant to be shared.

[nbr]

I have seen rains in Mangalore but never this Havoc. Most of these floods are man made

[lohithrao]

nbr, thanks for the pictures...

Actually floods is not new for the coast, as mentioned by you all are man made...

[rajshenoy]

I just wonder what will happen to this thread if Shiradi ghat conditions improve(or atleast wont worsen further), as many people(including me) have stopped asking for road condition updates

I am happy that rains have started(atleast the power cuts should reduce soon)

Looking forward for a drive thru shiradi in couple of weeks

[lohithrao]

Raj, in a months time we would have more updates on the road as the condition of the ghats would go bad...

Also offlate i am not too keen to travel on NH48, thanks to toe construction work going on...but i find the Mysore road option round about

on the rains i just pray we get sufficient of it, less rains can harm us in many ways

[Samurai]

My son hasn't had school in 3 days, all schools in Udupi district are closed since Tuesday. That should give you some idea about the rain right now.

The roads have turned from good to worse in matter of days, the people who saw the roads 10 days back won't recognize it now.

Yes, I rip through all the potholes without much thought as long as I am not driving the Santro. These are the days that warms your heart for owning 4x4 offroading vehicles. One doesn't have to go offroad to have offroad fun, just stay on road, that'll do.

All the heartburn of paying huge Karnataka road-tax heals temporarily. What other state gives offroad fun on roads for an entire season? I say call it offroad-tax, let's call spade a spade.

Of course, those of you who don't enjoy offroading or don't have Jeep/Gypsy/UV/SUVs, heed the subliminal message from the state government. Stay indoors or get out of the state...

[ravibhat]

Things are pretty bad in coastal and malnad area right now. Karnataka is one of the worst states in india still as far as road condition. Soon I hope politicians and officers of this State and some percentage of public learn awareness of how to keep ourselves and our neighbhourhood clean and neat which would improve the situation.

Ravi.

[lohithrao]

In Karnataka the roads cant take even 1 monsoon, newly laid tarmac gives up after couple of heavy showers... sad!

[aerohit]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

In Karnataka the roads cant take even 1 monsoon, newly laid tarmac gives up after couple of heavy showers... sad!

No road will survive for long unless there is a drainage system along the road to collect water.

Seems like the civic authorities are not educated about such concept.

Also, it seems they dont build road at a slant angle in the cities. Stagnant water will always create a pothole and eventually destroy the road.

[kavesh55]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Yes, I rip through all the potholes without much thought as long as I am not driving the Santro. These are the days that warms your heart for owning 4x4 offroading vehicles. One doesn't have to go offroad to have offroad fun, just stay on road, that'll do.

All the heartburn of paying huge Karnataka road-tax heals temporarily. What other state gives offroad fun on roads for an entire season? I say call it offroad-tax, let's call spade a spade.

Of course, those of you who don't enjoy offroading or don't have Jeep/Gypsy/UV/SUVs, heed the subliminal message from the state government. Stay indoors or get out of the state...

Yes Samurai do have a clue of the rains there. May be the roads authorities should be sent to Maharashtra and Gujarat. I too was grumblesome with having to pay taxes more than any other state. But i guess it helps.Dont know about the roads in Vidarbha but otherwise roads are fine.

[lohithrao]

Agree with you, when Shiradi ghat was almost complete and monsoon was almsot set last year and i was shocked to see that the drainage work ws done after completing the road work and at some places they dint have space to make drain! this was surely unplanned.. the authorities/engineers would have realised the need of drain at the last moment!

Same case with Mangalore city, after completion of the concrete roads, they are trying to acquire space for the drain...

Am amazed by all this!

Originally Posted by aerohit

No road will survive for long unless there is a drainage system along the road to collect water.

Seems like the civic authorities are not educated about such concept.

Also, it seems they dont build road at a slant angle in the cities. Stagnant water will always create a pothole and eventually destroy the road.

[Samurai]

My Uncle used to work for PWD between 50s-90s, he ended his career in Mangalore City, the only one year he ever served in a city. He started his career under British trained engineers and he has some amazing things to say about engineers in PWD. He was one of those clean types who was heavily despised within his department throughout his career. But none of his bosses ever wanted to transfer him away since he was generally the only one around who knew any real engineering.

According to him, the average knowledge/skill level of engineers in PWD has only been down, down and down. Until the 70s, the tar laying guys were specialists, who knew exactly how much to mix for a given raod specification. So, the roads were actually laid well. However, by the 90s anybody who wore the rubber padding for the given day became the tar mixer. The current bunch of PWD engineers can't lay a good road if their life depended on it. They simply don't know how.

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

In Karnataka the roads cant take even 1 monsoon, newly laid tarmac gives up after couple of heavy showers... sad!

And it has been happening for years now.

One should take the Anmod route from Goa to Londa. Right at the border and it is so damn surprising. The road on the karnataka side must have disintegrated while the one on Goa side is as good as new. Same rain, same traffic. But much better drainage. There are some bad sections on the Goa side too but thats due to the crazy rainfall on the western ghats.

And what takes the cake is the road tax in Goa is much lower then the one in Karnataka.