The art of travelling between Bangalore - Mangalore/Udupi

[Samurai]

Yesterday I had to travel in NH-48 for a brief stretch as I was driving from Dharmastala to Subrayamana. I took the turn at Gundya towards Subramanya, and that was a fantastic road, wide and spotless as a granite sheet.

However, the brief stretch on the NH-48 was a little scary. Mostly it was ok, but once in a while one comes across severe damage which is sometimes very dangerous and invisible to the eyes until it is too late. And this was during day time.

Once I hit a part of the road at 50kmph where no pot hole was visible, but the road surface resembles a sine wave, thanks to overloaded mine trucks. I didn't see it until I hit the first crest, it looks like normal road until then. After that the whole vehicle follows the same sinusoidal pattern. If you are in a sedan or a vehicle with long wheelbase + low GC, your car will be hurt badly down below. I recall saying Oh-My-God at least 3 times before it was over. Thanks to GV nothing happened, not many cars could have survived it without bottoming out at every crest.

[arin_12]

Originally Posted by mjothi

Oh no. After all those 100s of crore investment to lay tar through these ghats, it again back to same. I heard again they sanctions around 130 or 150crore to get this all done :(

Mjothi, This is our regular process to make richer for the GOVT official and Contractor.

Banning Mining vehicle will be not possible but I think they can restrict the load capacity.

[laluks]

The canvas is improving day by day for our artists. I am sure this road will also raise to the same fame our "Leh" roads enjoy. We can expect to see more reports now saying we conquered "Shiradi ghats".

Hopefully one day the load is controlled for these trucks, and the roads repaired for good. I have seen some good initiatives like construction of drains and concreting the curves. This are in the right direction - but the million dollar question is will the contractor do a decent job?

[Samurai]

Controlling the mine trucks is not possible in the near future. This is because most of the said mines are owned by top politicians of every party. Therefore, all parties have vested interest in keeping the status quo on that.

And they will overload by at least 2 times if not more. Since overloading is not official, government can never call for a tender that asks the contractors to build it to handle the overloaded truck traffic. Therefore, contractors will never build a road that can withstand overloaded mine trucks, the specs won't ask for it.

[lohithrao]

Its been almost 5 years since the bad roads saga started and itsgoing round and round, the roads are still motorable and has not reached the state as it was 2+years back..but its matter of a month or little more i guess...

I must say we Indians are we patient

[CrackedHead]

I drove down from Bangalore to Mangalore on friday night in the little 800. Started really late (2 AM) because I wanted to hit the (now) dreadful BCRoad-Mangalore-Udupi in daylight.

Must say that the ghats and all the other bad bits of road are a piece of cake compared to what the roads around Mangalore have come to be. I was lucky to escape without damaged driveshafts (car has a sump guard so that wasn't a worry).

Aren't any repairs planned anytime soon? Will be driving back on the 15th of Aug - am taking a different route for sure.

Are there any alternate routes that will take me from Udupi to Dharmasthalla (but bypassing Mangalore) ?

[lohithrao]

crackedHead, repairing will take about a year or more but the condition coming back to the same state will take less then a month

[CrackedHead]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

crackedHead, repairing will take about a year or more but the condition coming back to the same state will take less then a month

I've never seen that road get so bad anytime in the last eight years - looks like they just let go of whatever patch work they used to carry out. Agree with you on the time frames but how did it get so bad in the first place!

Back to my other question - is there any interior road I can take to avoid having to do the Udupi-Mangalore-BC road stretch on my way back ?

[lohithrao]

CH, never saw such bad roads in last 8 years? last 3+ years this stretch is giving nightmarish experience to all motorists...

On other que there are numerous posts dicussing on the route options on this thread...anyways either madikeri or the best would be "Kudremukha...Karkala" route..

[GSMINC]

Originally Posted by CrackedHead

Are there any alternate routes that will take me from Udupi to Dharmasthalla (but bypassing Mangalore) ?

You can go via: Udupi-Karkala-Guruvayanakere-Ujire-Dharmasthala

[CrackedHead]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

CH, never saw such bad roads in last 8 years? last 3+ years this stretch is giving nightmarish experience to all motorists...

On other que there are numerous posts dicussing on the route options on this thread...anyways either madikeri or the best would be "Kudremukha...Karkala" route..

I actually drove thru the ghat section once when it was closed to traffic for maintenance - and the rest of this route was still decent.

What I meant to say was that I've never seen the BC Road to Udupi stretch in such bad shape before. It had potholes but there was road amongst them - seems like one long stretch of potholes now.

Originally Posted by GSMINC

You can go via: Udupi-Karkala-Guruvayanakere-Ujire-Dharmasthala

Thanks - This was exactly the kind of detour that I was looking for. I just love driving thru the rest of that road (Dharmasthala-Shakleshpur-Bangalore).

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by CrackedHead

Thanks - This was exactly the kind of detour that I was looking for. I just love driving thru the rest of that road (Dharmasthala-Shakleshpur-Bangalore).

Well, its infact a shortcut if you are driving from Udupi and want to reach Dharmasthala.

Udupi-Mangalore-Dharmasthala will definitely be far and time will surely be more.

[prabhusati]

I will be driving down to Mangalore this Friday, 21st Aug 2009. The plan as of now is to start early at around 4.30am and drive via Madikeri. Any info on the road condition will be very helpful.

Also, what is the update on the route via Charmadi?

[nithz]

Originally Posted by prabhusati

I will be driving down to Mangalore this Friday, 21st Aug 2009. The plan as of now is to start early at around 4.30am and drive via Madikeri. Any info on the road condition will be very helpful.

Also, what is the update on the route via Charmadi?

I keep travelling to mangalore atleast twice in a month i recently discovered a route which saved me atleast 45 mins to 1 hour compared to my prior trips due to bad roads and traffic block(on NH) till mangalore .
-As you pass puttur you get into NH keep goin on NH before u reach B.C. ROAD you get a small junction (TOWN) in which if you take a left it goes to KONAJE mangalore university road go straight in that route its a narrow road with limited traffic (but be careful about sudden arrival of local private buses) it will lead you to town called MUDIPU ,you should take right which will go directly to TOKKOTTU (NH) from ther right leads to mangalore . hope it helped

[lohithrao]

Nithnz i plan t take this route on my next trip hows the road condition?