Bangalore - Tanjore Road Conditions

[ramkya1]

Hai TBHers,

A quick update on Bangalore - Salam - Trichy - Tanjore section.

12-11-07 : Start Bangalore HAL 0 km - 6 am, Krishnagiri toll plaza 99 km - 0720 am, 4 laning in progress till Salem, bad surface and craters for another 70 KMs, took 1 hr to cover, 4 track on the ghat section, great surface for 7 kms, again the trauma starts for another 24 kms, and completed 4 track begins with excellent roads for another 20 kms, you can rip above 100 here and make good some lost time, Took 3 hrs 10 mts to cover 215 kms - Bangalore to Salem.

Salem , Namallal, Musiri, Trichy - again road work all the way, surface unevean with patched up road an single lane for 100 kms till Musiri, took 1 hr 50 mits to cover this 100 kms. From Musiri, surface improves till trichy, took 1 hr 10 mits to cover 38 this twisting traffic dense section.

13-11-07 : Today covered trichy Tanjore 65 kms, took 2 hours, 4 laning work going on. Surface great after BHEL to Tanjore all the way; but traffic heavy with trucks and local buses and well marked humps and rumble strips.

Signing off, will update the Tanjore-Rameswaram section later after 17th.

Scorpio fans, the Scorp really rocks..............

Happy Driving,

--Ramky
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[hvkumar]

Ramky, are they widening the Namakkal-Musiri-Trichy road? And how are the facilities - petrol stations, hotels, etc on this route?

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Ramky, are they widening the Namakkal-Musiri-Trichy road? And how are the facilities - petrol stations, hotels, etc on this route?

The widening work from Salem to Namakkal is also on, Namakkal to Musiri is in full swing, after Musiri the work is not visible; since the road closely follows river Cauvery and the canal, getting space for acquisition would be a problem, I guess. From Namakkal to Musiri the road surface is pretty bad, after that its OK.

Exactly 75 KMS from the intersection of the NH 47 at Salem at Namakkal outer there is a good hotel, Hotel Golden Palace for on the left side with good parking facilities. As for food, I found that Namakkal town, crowded, has a couple of Veg. hotels, Thottiam also has 2 prominant eataing joints near the busstand and Mushri has one joint. Most of the places look ok, though we stopped only at Golden Palace. On the way from Trichy to Tanjore there is NOTHING as an eating place,you have to reach Tanjore for this.

--Ramky.

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[madaboutCARS]

well can you tell me the route if i want to visit kumbakonam, longer route is ok with me but should have roads which are motorable. i am taking aveo. i am planning this on nov 30 . please guys help me with the route

[hvkumar]

From Mysore, teh best route to get to Kumbakonan is to take the following route:

Mysore-Nanjangud-Chamarajnagar-Sathyamangalam-Gopichettipalayam-Erode-Tiruchengode-Namakkal-Musiri-Trichy-Thanjavur/Thiruvayaru-Kumbakonam.

This offers you good roads almost all the way, and is also the most direct and shortest. To go to Kumbakonam via Tiruvayaru (instead of Thanjavur), you don't have to touch Trichy, interecting NH45 before Srirangam.

[madaboutCARS]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

From Mysore, teh best route to get to Kumbakonan is to take the following route:

Mysore-Nanjangud-Chamarajnagar-Sathyamangalam-Gopichettipalayam-Erode-Tiruchengode-Namakkal-Musiri-Trichy-Thanjavur/Thiruvayaru-Kumbakonam.

This offers you good roads almost all the way, and is also the most direct and shortest. To go to Kumbakonam via Tiruvayaru (instead of Thanjavur), you don't have to touch Trichy, interecting NH45 before Srirangam.

Thanks hvkumar, i have heard that chamarajnagar to Sathyamangalam the road is not that good, and always the road gets blocked because of some lorry? is that true. how much time it will take from mysore, approx time?

[csentil]

Actually

the initial 10 kms from Chamrajnagar is full of small potholes. Could be worse now after rains. A lot of trees have been cut on that section. After that the road is light gradient uphill till Thimbam. Lot of nice turns and the roads are pretty much decent. Once you cross over to TN the road gets better.

The hairpin bends down to Bannari from Thimbam are steep. Yes you might have a lorry breakdown at times but typically blocks happen only during night times if it all.

Mysore to nanjangud - 30 minutes ?
Nanjangud to Chamrajnagar - 1 hour (Be careful of humps on this road, unmarked: typically before and after every village)
Chamrajnagar to Sathymangalam - 90 minutes to 2 hrs depending on your driving skills and trafffic.

[nssrini]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

The widening work from Salem to Namakkal is also on, Namakkal to Musiri is in full swing, after Musiri the work is not visible; since the road closely follows river Cauvery and the canal, getting space for acquisition would be a problem, I guess. From Namakkal to Musiri the road surface is pretty bad, after that its OK.



--Ramky.

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I think a slight correction here - I also did this route till trichy during deepavali week. There's no widening on Namakkal - Musiri section. Just that the work is on till the NH7 deviation happens. But beyond 15kms from Namakkal - the road is pretty okay - except for few minor patches here and there. In fact compared to the shady roads in K'giri - Dharmapuri - Salem sections - the namakkal trichy section is quite good.

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by nssrini

I think a slight correction here - I also did this route till trichy during deepavali week. There's no widening on Namakkal - Musiri section. Just that the work is on till the NH7 deviation happens. But beyond 15kms from Namakkal - the road is pretty okay - except for few minor patches here and there. In fact compared to the shady roads in K'giri - Dharmapuri - Salem sections - the namakkal trichy section is quite good.

Hai Srini,

There is road work going on in this section, may be they are widening the roads or doubling it? Yes the roads are not as bad as the K'giri -Dharmapuri section, but the surface was unevean with need to slow down because of pot-holes and traffic snarls due to that.

I will be uploading the logs, we can get a hang of the timings.

Happy Driving,

--Ramky

[isacM]

Thanjavur is my hometown , I planned to do this trip from the day I decided to buy the Ikon but didn't thought it will materialize so soon . Key motivators are
1) I want to take my mum to some place in my new / first car 2) AkROY's Kolkata Travelogue [as usual awesome] 3) My odometer before the trip it is reading at 259 Kms [result of me spending last 20+ days in abroad and my tight schedule]

Being a new driver confusion started from when will be the best time to start /whether to tell my mother that I am driving ,after couple of discussions with my friends and well wishers decided to start early morning and not to tell my mother and panick her

Date started - 24 saturday - 6 A.M

Moderate traffic till electronic city [IT Cabs] - after that pretty good road and less traffic till krishnagiri toll booth [best stretch in the entire trip] - cud have easily tried max in Ikon but had to control myself
as I dont want to hit 100+ during first 500 - After toll booth the road is like - good road , Ok road , What? Where is NH ?? same story till salem .

If you are attempting this road just be aware of the pot holes - most of them are wheel breakers Had Tea at dharmapuri - fuel at Reliance reached salem at 10.30 Picked up my friend / guide from salem - continued the trip - had lunch at namakkal [nallas opp to Golden palace] OK food , Good Parking facilities , started receiving calls from my worried mother [she was wondering why it is taking this much time to reach home in bus - usually i do night trips in bus] still managing the same story! dense traffic and worst roads till BHEL ,finally reached thanjavur at 3.30. Had to pacify mum and convince her that I drive quiete OK
Total KMS - 392

Day 2: Planned to take my mum to poondi matha church [near by thirukkatu palli ] , started around 3 p.m . Quiete a experience driving in village -
people talking in the mid of the road , buffaloes , goat and chicken crossing the road as they wish [if you hit any of them you are screwed! ] . Very nice atmospehere


Day 3 : Back to bangalore - had to start at 7 A.M since I couldn't figure out how to switch on the fog lamps [any help please] - we had our breakfast in trichy - Fuel at reliance [kattur] - dropped my friend in salem at 12 - hit 110+/hr in krishnagiri - Hosur stretch - reached bangalore at 5.30 [spent close to 1 hr in hosur road after hitting garave palya ]

Now my driving experience , I had done 850+ kms in this trip . Didn't felt tired at all that says volumes about Ikon's driveability considering
worst stretches , worst drivers [buses over taking each other in single lane road and doesn't care to slow down for approaching traffic]
I had an excellent time and didn't had any issues at all . I haven't calculated the mileage but approx 15Kms/lit .In turning it ROCKS . AC excellent

P.S : I couldn't take snaps of big temple , will do that next trip [Ben: I hope this will do for a ownership report :-)

My Car

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Our Garden

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Poondi - Farm Land
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Church:
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[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by isacM

Day 3 : Back to bangalore - had to start at 7 A.M since I couldn't figure out how to switch on the fog lamps [any help please]

Hi Isac, Although this isnt the right thread to be asking or for me to be replying, just doing it as a one-off case.



The switch which i have circled above is the one for turning on the fog lamps. However, as a prerequisite, the parking lights need to be turned on as well. Hope that helps.

[blorebuddy]

Originally Posted by isacM

worst drivers [buses over taking each other in single lane road and doesn't care to slow down for approaching traffic]

This is the second worst issue in the NH7 from Bangalore - Salem. First one being the pot holes.

How to manage these worst drivers? any ideas?

[benbsb29]

Re-Posting pics on behalf of IsacM.

[madaboutCARS]

has anybody travelled to tanjur or kumbakonam recently taking the mysore route. Any updates on the road condition...

i am starting of at 5.00 morning on 15th december from mysore . after visiting kumbakonam i am planning to drive down to rameswaram .. anybody knows the route from kumbakonam to rameswaram..

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by madaboutCARS

has anybody travelled to tanjur or kumbakonam recently taking the mysore route. Any updates on the road condition...

i am starting of at 5.00 morning on 15th december from mysore . after visiting kumbakonam i am planning to drive down to rameswaram .. anybody knows the route from kumbakonam to rameswaram..

Hai,

I just finished a trip in that route as I stated at the start of this thread. I got back on 28th after my Ahmedabad, Bangalire, Trichy, Tanjore, Pudukottai, Rameswara, Tuticorin, Terichendur, Trivandrum, Cochin, Palakkad, Bangallore, Ahmedabad trip. Still compiling my trip logos, photos and travellogue; will upload everything in a day or two.

Happy Driving,

--Ramky