Chennai - Ullundurpettai - Salem route

[DWind]

If NH68 is completed then most Lorry traffic going towards Kerala and West TN would be diverted to NH45 - NH68 (shorter, no ghat section). Not sure how worse would that make to the traffic.

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by DWind

If NH68 is completed then most Lorry traffic going towards Kerala and West TN would be diverted to NH45 - NH68 (shorter, no ghat section). Not sure how worse would that make to the traffic.

The lorry traffic after Krishnagiri on NH46 is negligible as compared to the lorry traffic on NH7 on both sides of Krishnagiri. I doubt there would be major difference in both the routes once the 4 laning is done. I certainly expect the bus traffic especially the private bus traffic to move back to NH45/68 combo once the 4 laning is done.

[PRADEEP KUMAR]

Folks,
Did coimbatore -chennai via ulundurpet 10 days back.
Salem to athur is 70% complete. athur to kallakurichi is again 80% complete.
kallakurichi to ulundurpet is almost 90% complete.The ulundurpet bypass is not fully completed.
No bye passes yet at athur,kallakurichi plus all railway gates except one R.overbridge are in bad shape.

cheers.

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by PRADEEP KUMAR

Folks,
Did coimbatore -chennai via ulundurpet 10 days back.
Salem to athur is 70% complete. athur to kallakurichi is again 80% complete.
kallakurichi to ulundurpet is almost 90% complete.The ulundurpet bypass is not fully completed.
No bye passes yet at athur,kallakurichi plus all railway gates except one R.overbridge are in bad shape.

cheers.

Thanks a lot Pradeep. I always think of doing NH68 on my every visit to Salem. But, I skip it in the end. I am going to try this out this Thursday. Do you remember the time taken to do Salem-Ulundurpet section?

[PRADEEP KUMAR]

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

Thanks a lot Pradeep. I always think of doing NH68 on my every visit to Salem. But, I skip it in the end. I am going to try this out this Thursday. Do you remember the time taken to do Salem-Ulundurpet section?

Salem 5 pm, bye pass exit 5.15pm - ulundurpet A2b 8.20 pm.

tx

[DWind]

So the 150 Odd Kms between Salem and Ulundurpet took 3 hours. Once the bye pass to towns are complete we can probably look at reduction of at least 30 mins?

[ampere]

These 4L jobs are not a part of GQ or NS-Corridor right? If not, then how are these things being planned? Does the NH68 sees lot of traffic or is it that NHAI senses potential traffic growth based on this 4L?

Basic question, how do they decide which NH should be 4'Laned first?

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by ampere

These 4L jobs are not a part of GQ or NS-Corridor right? If not, then how are these things being planned? Does the NH68 sees lot of traffic or is it that NHAI senses potential traffic growth based on this 4L?

Basic question, how do they decide which NH should be 4'Laned first?

These are part of NHDP Phase III projects. I suppose the stretch where there is more potential in terms of Toll etc. decides which stretch has more takers for construction. If you see the NHAI website almost 95% of the Phase I and about 90% of Phase II has been implemented / under construction. So NHDP Phase III is being taken up now with quite a few projects already implemented as well. You would also note in this phase there are some 2 laned highway works as well. .:NHAI:.Completed Stretches on Golden Quadrilateral

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by DWind

So the 150 Odd Kms between Salem and Ulundurpet took 3 hours. Once the bye pass to towns are complete we can probably look at reduction of at least 30 mins?

Once the entire stretch is completed (137 Kms), I don't see more than 2 hours to do this stretch.

Originally Posted by ampere

These 4L jobs are not a part of GQ or NS-Corridor right? If not, then how are these things being planned? Does the NH68 sees lot of traffic or is it that NHAI senses potential traffic growth based on this 4L?

Basic question, how do they decide which NH should be 4'Laned first?

Amp, NH68 is very important for the connectivity to the western Tamilnadu from Chennai. For your information, 10 years back this was not NH at all. It was taken over by NHAI and given NH68. When you look at the distance from Chennai to Salem. Taking NH68 is the more viable solution since the distance is 30-40 kms less than all other options.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

Amp, NH68 is very important for the connectivity to the western Tamilnadu from Chennai. For your information, 10 years back this was not NH at all. It was taken over by NHAI and given NH68. When you look at the distance from Chennai to Salem. Taking NH68 is the more viable solution since the distance is 30-40 kms less than all other options.

@Ramesh I was always sure of the importance of NH68 and reasons why folks from Chennai going to Salem and beyond were forced to take 46 and not 48.

I just had a general question on how does NHAI come with 4L proposals. Because it might also end up as state vs center tussle, with all states fighting for the corpus.

[Blue Thunder]

Last weekend, got a chance to drive on Neyveli-Vridhachalam-Veppur-Athur-Salem route. Ended up totally frustrated. The Veppur-Athur stretch is 'some road- no roads at all-then some roads'-kind-of stretch. To be avoided at all costs, till the roads have been completely laid (work is going on in some stretches).

After joining the NH68, equally frustating since the 4Laning is going on, and not yet completed.

Drove back to Chennai using the Salem-Krishnagiri route, and enjoyed the drive immensely.

I would avoid the Chennai-Ulunderpettai-Salem route, till the 4Laning is completed.

[rameshnanda]

I finally did the Ulundurpet-Salem (NH68) stretch last weekend. As told by other members, Ulundurpet-Kallakurichi section is good with almost 80-85% 4 Laning complete. I did good speed on this stretch. Kallakurichi-Attur is Average with almost 60-70% of the work completed. Attur-Salem section is below Average. On the whole, the complete section is doable during day time and definitely not suggested during night.

On the side note, I felt this section to be better than the Under construction section of Chengapalli-Coimbatore (NH47) - may be because of the volume of traffic in NH47.

[smrtdvl]

Originally Posted by Blue Thunder

Last weekend, got a chance to drive on Neyveli-Vridhachalam-Veppur-Athur-Salem route. Ended up totally frustrated. The Veppur-Athur stretch is 'some road- no roads at all-then some roads'-kind-of stretch. To be avoided at all costs, till the roads have been completely laid (work is going on in some stretches).

Thanx for the info, I thought of taking this route as google maps suggests this as primary route. Any idea about the route from athur - kallakurichi? Am starting by morn to pondi.

[luvurride]

Attur-Kallkurichi is OK, definitely better than Salem-Attur. There are very few sections where both sides are done and some sections where atleast one side is done. But there are some pockets where the road widening is not happening that maybe because of stay orders from locals. I have done it in my Swift and it took them reasonably well.

[narayans80]

Ramesh, How long did it take to cover Ulundurpet-Salem ?