[blorebuddy]

Pls have a look at this thread for road condition update
Blore - Salem - Karur
Bhavani - Mettur - Thoppur

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ndition-2.html

[sukkur]

Did Kochi-Kovai-Salem-Krishnagiri-Bangalore on 28th Dec 2008. The road is much better now. Long very good streches. A much more comfortable drive.

[Prithvi]

Guys any updates on the road conditions from Blore to Cochin?

[coolclouds]

Last I did Bangalore Kochi was about two months back
Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Thoppur -> Four lane, excellent road (excuse the bad stretches between Bangalore and Hosur)

Thoppur-Mettur-Bhavani (The point you enter NH47) -> Two lane, less traffic road (very few patches here and there)

Bhavani - Perundurai (?) -> Four lane - mostly done

Perundurai-Valayar -> Two lane/high traffic road except in L&T byepass - very few patches

Valayar-Palakkad-Trichur-Angamaly -> Expect in bad shape due to monsoon

Angamaly (airport) - Alwaye - Edappally -> Four lane highway

Silkboard Jn to Valayar can be done in 5hrs or less.

To reach east of Cochin (Tripunithura/Chottanikkara/Vaikom/Sabarimala/Kottayam route etc), take a diversion at Kalamasserry via Seaport-Airport road

This is the fastest and safest route compared to less distance Bangalore - Mysore - Gundalpet - Bandipur forest - Guddallur - Nilambur - Trichur - Kochi

[linoos]

My last drive on the Kerala bangalore route was in the end of Sept'09.
To and fro Route taken.
Bangalore -> Hosur-> Krishnagiri-> Dharmapuri-> Salem-Bypass -> Coimbatore- L&T Bypass -->Walayar --> Thrisur -> Chalakudy--> Eranakulam(Kalamaserry).

Road condition was very good till Walayar after which it was in accepctable condition.
near to Wadakancherry there was an accident which created a very big traffic block. We tried to by-pass the block by going on some pocket roads and ran near to 20 Kms extra. lucky we were travellimng in the day. had to ask the localites at each junction.

We took near to 11 hours inclusive of 1:30 HRS of Lunch and snacks break together.

We returned on the same route and took only 10 Hrs inclusive 1:30 HRS of Breakfast and Lunch break.

on this route the toll roads are Good.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

May I suggest that we continue with this on "Current condition of roads to Kerala" thread?

[s3va]

Can we have some updates on the Bangalore-Cochin route, latest stats on the road conditions. I am intending to travel to cochin soon with my family, hence please suggest me the shortest and most comfortable route.

This is what i had in mind

BLR-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Mettur-Athani-Gobi-Coimby-Palghat-Trichur-Ekm

Appreciate your quick responses...

Thanks
Siva

[hvkumar]

Here is an update from my drive on the route via Salem, on Nov 14, 2009.

BANGALORE-ERNAKULAM

I left Bangalore HSR Layout at 515 am on Nov 14, 2009.

Bangalore-Salem, 194 kms, 2.28 hrs

Despite a slow drive till Hosur and a 5 m refuelling halt after Hosur, the drive was fast and smooth. Truck traffic was high all the way and city traffic slowed me down as I approached Salem at 745 am.

The humps in the Toppur Ghat section are terrible.

I decided to try out the 4-laned Salem instead of the shorter Toppur-Mettur-Bhavani route.

Signages are excellent on Salem bypass.

Salem-Coimbatore bypass (beginning), 153 kms, 2.10 hrs

Leaving NH7 for NH47 at Salem meant 2-laned roads till Sankari, and the 48 km took me 41 kms, but the initial 10 kms out of Salem were very slow and one has to be careful with the miscellanous traffic and buses which spill all over the road. Some 5 kms from Salem, 4-lane roads are under construction. Sankari town also slows you down.
The next 69 kms till you cross Perunthurai when the 4-lane road ends took me 49 m, since it is a lovely 4-lane stretch.

After the fast drive so far, it is a hellish drive from hereon for the next 43 kms, which took me 43 m, and some breakneck driving to overtake the umpteen buses and other slower-moving vehicles, crossing the messy small towns like Avinashi in between and beating peak morning traffic. It was almost 10 am when I reached the beginning of Coimbatore bypass.

Coimbatore Bypass, 27 kms, 27 m

Very frustrating 2-lane road with 2 many toll gates, one before every intersection (Trichy, Pollachi), means 5 toll gates, could L&T not figure out a better way to regulate entry/exit. Although you take one through ticket, the toll gates stop you to check every time and are terribly inefficient. I had to pick up a fight with one of the toll gate guys, that was the level of frustration with the state of affairs. The intersections can also do without signals (why not a roundabout instead) - the sparse traffic means that for most part, traffic ignores the signals and moves on increasing risks of collisions.

Coimbatore-Trissur (bypass beginning), 95 kms, 1.47 hrs

You can see how slow the drive was on the 2-lane roads through Palghat to Trissur. Traffic was quite high, overtaking difficult, but happily the roads were good throughout including the notorious Palghat-Trissur section.

The TN-KL border checkposts looks the most inefficient in India, judging from the trucks piled up for over a km on both sides - but luckily well-regulated and parked in an orderly fashion, but I can imagine the jam that will erupt if anyone goes out of line in the narrow road.

Trissur-Ernakulam Vytilla Jn, 75 kms, 1.40 m

That was really slow, my best time on this stretch being 60 minutes.
4-laning work is on from Trissur onwards, and there are some major deviations (e.g. go into Chalakudy town), and one has to be slow and patient in the busy KL roads. High tIme to build a couple of flyovers off Aluva town instead of the clumsy signal points.
Signages are good.

The Bangalore-Ernakulam drive of 545 kms took me 7.47 m.
First 200 kms from Bnagalore to Salem took me 2.30 hrs
Second 215 kms from Salem to Palghat took me 3.15 hrs
Last 135 kms took me 2.45 m, best time has been 2 hrs

[vinu_pm]

Excellent Report, by the way which vehicle you were driving.

I am planning for a Guruvayur trip by the weekend in my work horse maruti 800 1997.
Need to meet someone at calicut so possible route is Bangalore - > Mysore - > Waynad - > Calicut - > Guruvayur

Any idea about this route.I mean the road condition ?

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by vinu_pm

Excellent Report, by the way which vehicle you were driving.

I am planning for a Guruvayur trip by the weekend in my work horse maruti 800 1997.
Need to meet someone at calicut so possible route is Bangalore - > Mysore - > Waynad - > Calicut - > Guruvayur

Any idea about this route.I mean the road condition ?

I was in a Scorpio.

That road is good except that the road from Gundulpet to Sultan Battery is closed between 9 pm and 6 am.

There is another thread where the route Bangalore-Calicut is discussed, where you will get uptodate details.

[s3va]

Originally Posted by vinu_pm

Excellent Report, by the way which vehicle you were driving.

I am planning for a Guruvayur trip by the weekend in my work horse maruti 800 1997.
Need to meet someone at calicut so possible route is Bangalore - > Mysore - > Waynad - > Calicut - > Guruvayur

Any idea about this route.I mean the road condition ?

Mysore - > Waynad - > Calicut - > Guruvayur : That's a good choice !

It would be a far better choice as compared to NH-7 : Nh 47 route .

Atleast you wont have the 4 laning activities hindering your trip. And via Calicut is more scenic.

HVKUMAR..Thanks for the update

[vinu_pm]

Thanks to all for the info, Am safely back to Bangalore today morning.
I started the Journey at 5:15 and took a 15 -20 mins breakfast at Nanjagode and reached calicut y 12:15 .

The road was amazing including the one in Bandipur forest and the Thamaraserri Ghat .

Again started from Calicut at 4:00 and reached Guruvayur by 7:00 the stretch from Kottakal to Kuttipuram the road was not good and took lot of time due to rain and poor visibility in dusk.

Any ways overall it was a wonderful journey

Return was in Train

[vikramk]

Originally Posted by vinu_pm

Thanks to all for the info, Am safely back to Bangalore today morning.
I started the Journey at 5:15 and took a 15 -20 mins breakfast at Nanjagode and reached calicut y 12:15 .

The road was amazing including the one in Bandipur forest and the Thamaraserri Ghat .

Again started from Calicut at 4:00 and reached Guruvayur by 7:00 the stretch from Kottakal to Kuttipuram the road was not good and took lot of time due to rain and poor visibility in dusk.

Any ways overall it was a wonderful journey

Return was in Train

I will be traveling to Guruvayoor on Feb 6th and thinking of going via Bandipur -Wayanad-Kozhikode route. I liked your review and happy to know that the roads are good.
Can you provide a little more details of the road conditions - like are there any stretches where the road is bad and driving is difficult ? Also how much of Ghat roads have to be covered on this route ?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by vikramk

I will be traveling to Guruvayoor on Feb 6th and thinking of going via Bandipur -Wayanad-Kozhikode route. I liked your review and happy to know that the roads are good.
Can you provide a little more details of the road conditions - like are there any stretches where the road is bad and driving is difficult ? Also how much of Ghat roads have to be covered on this route ?

Instead of Waynad go via Nilambur. Thats also very scenic and roads are very good. After Gudlupet, instead of going to Waynad go through Bandipur forest and keep going through to Gudalur and then to Nilambur. Then through Perinthalmanna, Pattambi, Kunnankulam you can go to Guruvaur. Many folks have done this stretch including me. I got to know of this route in this forum only. For more details look at the following link:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...-required.html

[vikramk]

Originally Posted by ampere

Instead of Waynad go via Nilambur. Thats also very scenic and roads are very good. After Gudlupet, instead of going to Waynad go through Bandipur forest and keep going through to Gudalur and then to Nilambur. Then through Perinthalmanna, Pattambi, Kunnankulam you can go to Guruvaur. Many folks have done this stretch including me. I got to know of this route in this forum only. For more details look at the following link:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...-required.html

Thanks buddy for that info . I'll take the Nilambur route and post my experience sometime next week.