Team-BHP - Chennai to Thiruvannamalai : Route Queries

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiran (Post 2564852)

I am planning to drive Thiruvannamalai for 1-2 days. Can you please suggest the best route from Perungudi (OMR) to Thiruvannamalai? Any suggestions for a hotel near by temple?

Hi Kiran, take pallikaranai (TCS Road) from perungudi and reach chrompet.From chrompet take NH45 and drive down till Tindivanam .Take the right at the junction which is called Gingee road to reach tiruvannamalai.

Tindivanam is 120 kms from adyar and tiruvannamalai is about 80 km from there.

For Hotels check justdial they have a long list

NH66 is in quite a bad shape now. Did Chennai - Thiruvannamalai last weekend. Lots of pot holes all along from Tindivaman to Singee and beyond. Only about 10-15kms from Thiruvannamalai does the road improve

at many places work seems to have started for 4 laning but I dint notice any active work being done ( maybe due to the weekend and hope the project is not stalled )

come to think of it even NH45 needs repair at a lot of places. There are 2 tolls to be paid till Tindivam ( Rs50 in total for one way ) - Hopefully the road operators are going to spend this money for the up keep also

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiran (Post 2564852)

I am planning to drive Thiruvannamalai for 1-2 days. Can you please suggest the best route from Perungudi (OMR) to Thiruvannamalai? Any suggestions for a hotel near by temple?

Kiran, towards the north entrance of the temple there are some lodges, which are moderate and are near by the temple. There is ample parking also available here. We have been to a lodge in this lane in Jan this year.

Dear Friends,

Sorry to bump an old thread. Planning to go to Thiruvannamalai next week end.

1. Can some one Please update the status of the Road to Thiruvannamalai from Chennai? The last time I went an year back, I remember the road from Tindivanam to Thiruvannamalai was under construction in most of the places.

2. Also, can some one Please suggest some decent Lodge Names with Car Park and near to the Temple?

Thanks & Regards!

Nithi,

Road from Tindivanam to Thiruvannamalai are more or less in the same state.

If you dont mind extra 40+ kms then you can go via Arcot, Pollur. It will be crowded near arcot but after which you can maintain constant speed. This route will be pretty much empty in the night but please drive sedately as i have seen many accidents in this route after dusk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nithi (Post 3402515)

Quote:

Dear Friends,

Sorry to bump an old thread. Planning to go to Thiruvannamalai next week end.

1. Can some one Please update the status of the Road to Thiruvannamalai from Chennai? The last time I went an year back, I remember the road from Tindivanam to Thiruvannamalai was under construction in most of the places.
[/QUOTE ]

If you stay close to GST then Tindivanam else take the Arcot Polur Road. Because either way you will face traffic.

[QUOTE ]
2. Also, can some one Please suggest some decent Lodge Names with Car Park and near to the Temple?

I remember one Arunai Anantha. But that was long time ago.

I did Chennai-Thiruvannamalai stretch yesterday, 6th April, 2014. The road from Tindivanam till Thiruvannamalai is still in bad condition. The road is dug up at multiple places for widening, but no work is going on (may be because of sunday). Minor pot holes are common and road is disintegrating itself slowly slowly. Very few stretches are there which are clean, but overall it is in pretty bad state.

My Amaze took a beating at this road :(

Chennai (Santhosapuram) start time: 7:00 AM
Thiruvannamalai end time: 10:15 AM

5 min stop near Thiruvannamalai for sugarcane juice :)

I am planning to do the trip tomorrow from Chennai to Thiruvannamalai.

Thanks to Gurminder_81 's reply I am thinking of taking the longer Arcot+Polur road and see how my Civic fares. I'll update after the trip.

Dear all,
I did this trip last Friday (7-Nov-2014).
Chennai (Tambaram) --> Chengelpet --> Thindivanum --> Thiruvannamalai.

The stretch from Thindivanam to Thiruvannamalai is not very good nor very bad. It is butter smooth for say 1-2 km and then bad patches for the next 1-2 km. The bad sections are manageable though. There is a proper car park available in the temple campus. No worries on that part.

Regards,
Karthik Iyer

Hi Karthik,

Thanks for your inputs below. So would it be correct to state that out of the 188-200 odd kms, only 1-2 Kms is really the challenge here ?

Also if i put chennai-thiruvannamalai in Google, it gives me three paths, which one of these have you taken ?

Thanks
Kartik

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiyer_2000 (Post 3577250)

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarCrazy7 (Post 3597170)

Also if i put chennai-thiruvannamalai in Google, it gives me three paths, which one of these have you taken ?

The idea here is to avoid NH66 as much as possible. Now in doing that, the next constraint is to see which sections of SH are good/better.

There are two options left with:

- Drive towards Arcot and then go down south via Arani/Chetpet/Polur
or
- Drive on GST and see what can be done.

Now with referecnce to Arcot: What I hear is roads around Arani/Polur are not that great. The other option I can think is:

- Drive on GST but not till Tindivanam. Exit at Sothupakam and drive to Vandavasi.
- And there on to Chetpet and Tiruvannamali.

I think this way you reduce the bad roads to a minimum.

Here is the route link for reference: Route Link

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarCrazy7 (Post 3597170)

Hi Karthik,

Thanks for your inputs below. So would it be correct to state that out of the 188-200 odd kms, only 1-2 Kms is really the challenge here ?

Thanks
Kartik

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampere (Post 3597237)

The idea here is to avoid NH66 as much as possible. Now in doing that, the next constraint is to see which sections of SH are good/better.

- Drive on GST but not till Tindivanam. Exit at Sothupakam and drive to Vandavasi.
- And there on to Chetpet and Tiruvannamali.

I think this way you reduce the bad roads to a minimum.

I would say avoid vandavasi route, it has some worst stretches where even my scorpio couldnt handle. It also has many small towns and narrow roads which will eat your time.

Thindivanam route is not complete but its still manageable. Out of 70 kms, the most tiring would be from Thindivanam to Gingee, after which 50-50 all the way till thiruvannamalai.

Update on Thindivanam route.

It has become better but still not complete. Its good from thindivanam till a small town called vallam and gets bad till Gingee. After Gingee, if you manage some 5 kms then its pretty good till Thiruvannamalai.