Bangalore to Tirunelveli by road - Road condition as of Nov09

[gopikb]

Dear Team BHPians, Did anybody travel from Bangalore to Tirunelveli by road recently. I want to know the road condition between Salem and Madurai and am more interested to know if the Madurai bypass road starting from Samayanallur and landing near Tirumangalam is complete. The last time I drove during April-2009, the bypass road was not complete and I got stuck in Madurai traffic for more than 2 hours.

I am planning to drive during last week of November and any inputs would help to plan my trip. Thanks all for your help.

[explorer09]

Hi,

Did you do this trip? How were the road conditions?

Regards,
Sandeep

[gopikb]

Hi Sandeep, I had to defer the trip until the Christmas weekend due to office work. I am starting on 24th Dec morning. From the information I have gathered so far, it looks like a seamless 4-lane drive all the way to Tirunelveli except that there are few bridges under construction between Virudunagar and Tirunelveli. Not a big speed limiter though.

Good news is that the Madurai bypass between Samayanallur and Thirumangalam has been opened for traffic and we dont have to enter Madurai city at all. This will save you atleast 2 hours.

[hvkumar]

Lovely fast drive all the way. Only bad patch is near Kayathar, but that is for just a km or so.

[GetzLover]

Hi - I did a trip to Tirunelveli in my 2006 Getz. Was expecting average roads beyond Madurai.
The route I tool was Bangalore- Salem-Madurai-Tirunelveli.Left Bangalore at 6.10 AM ( Brookfields/Whitefield) and reached Salem by 8.55 AM ( 200 Kms) . Started again @ 9.30 AM and reached Madurai by 12.45. Watch out for people coming on the wrongside between Namakkal-Karur stretch. These folks tend to come without even the headlights on- resulting in last minute shockers.. If possible avoid driving on the extreme right lane- use that only for overtaking .

I halted at Madurai for one day, and left at 2 PM towards Tirunelveli. The entire stretch is too good - except couple of deviations (bridge construction). I reached Tirunelveli by 5.20 PM

Speed Maintained- 90-105 Kmph
AC- 100%
Vehicle-Getz Petrol
Mileage-around 17.5

[gopikb]

Dear All, I just came back from my Tuticorin - Bangalore drive yesterday. The road from Bangalore to Kovilpatti is almost completely 4-laned except for the following

1. Two bridges between Bangalore and karnataka border. Otherwise the 6-lane road is very good compared to what it was a year ago.

2. Bridge under construction near Salem

3. Bridge in bypass road near dindugal

4. Bridge immediately after Samayanallur towards Madurai bypass road.

All the other places are fully 4-laned and by passes all towns enroute. This makes the drive much more faster.

During onward journey, I went to Kodaikanal, stayed for a day and then to Tuticorin.

The return was direct drive to Bangalore. Started at 8.30AM from Tuti and reached Bangalore at 7.30PM. The total distance from Home to Home is 618kms. Driving time was 9 hours and 2 hours break at Salem for Lunch. I had to drive inside Salem for lunch since there was no good restaurants in the highway between Madurai and Salem. The speed maintained was consistent 100 to 120kms/hr on a free 4-lane highway.

The drive was not tiring at all because of good roads. However, the dangerous and irritating habit I noticed with Tamilnadu drivers is that they tend to drive on the wrong side of the road without any slightest regard to their own safety and other road users. I really hope Tamilnadu police comes up with some steep fines or punishment for such drivers so that they will not dare to drive on the wrong side of the road. The drivers range from two-wheelers, buses, trucks, tractors etc. So we have to be very careful and vigilant always.

[gajadonga]

Thanks for the update.I think from Salem After you cross the Thoppur Ghat you have Anand bhavan restaurant next time I think you can take a break there instead of going into the Salem city.

[raka1o]

Very good information, another few months then these small stretches should be fixed, work progress is really fast. I travelled from Bangalore to Srivilliputtur in my Wagon R, started 7AM from Bangalore (kudlu gate) and reached srivilliputter at 2:30pm, I never imagined, I will be at home for lunch. Took breakfast in Ananda bhavan before krishnagiri and another break after salem. Only took 7 and half hours. Thats valid point try to avoid driving in right side of the road as few places villagers cannot cross the road and they drive wrong side, they never care of us, I saw few tractors and lorries coming in wrong direction. Road is superb and Toll of around 230 rupees needs to be paid but its worth paying because I have seen how bad was the roads earlier and also saves lots of time and fuel. Dont have to enter Madurai so that saves more than 1 hour and new thirumangalam, need to get down from NH and take the Kollam road to reach Srivilliputtur, even that road is very good eventhough it single road.

[subernarms]

Originally Posted by GetzLover

Hi - I did a trip to Tirunelveli in my 2006 Getz. Was expecting average roads beyond Madurai.
The route I tool was Bangalore- Salem-Madurai-Tirunelveli.Left Bangalore at 6.10 AM ( Brookfields/Whitefield) and reached Salem by 8.55 AM ( 200 Kms) . Started again @ 9.30 AM and reached Madurai by 12.45. Watch out for people coming on the wrongside between Namakkal-Karur stretch. These folks tend to come without even the headlights on- resulting in last minute shockers.. If possible avoid driving on the extreme right lane- use that only for overtaking .

I halted at Madurai for one day, and left at 2 PM towards Tirunelveli. The entire stretch is too good - except couple of deviations (bridge construction). I reached Tirunelveli by 5.20 PM

Speed Maintained- 90-105 Kmph
AC- 100%
Vehicle-Getz Petrol
Mileage-around 17.5

Instead of grumbling within ourselves about people coming on the wrong side between Namakkal and Karur, why don't we guys go ahead and do something about it. The below link provides us space to register complaints related to Highways. Who knows; if there are a bunch of complaints registered about one specific problem, that too at a same place/area, they may at least get curious to know what's happening.

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