Team-BHP > Travelogues > Route / Travel Queries


Reply
  Search this Thread
1,046,850 views
Old 11th August 2011, 13:53   #316
BHPian
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 61
Thanked: 16 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

Quote:
Originally Posted by ampere View Post
The problem is Krishnagiri-Tiruvannamalai, which is the biggest pain (~120km).
Thanks ampere. I am going to try out the vellore route this time. Considering that i remember K'giri- t'namalai route to be bad, when it was considered good, and hence I shudder to imagine now that its considered bad, how bad can it get

Thanks, hope not to get lost. My kannada is passable, and tamil knowledge doesn't go beyond the 2G scam.
v-drive is offline  
Old 11th August 2011, 14:00   #317
Team-BHP Support
 
ampere's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 17,922
Thanked: 12,888 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

Quote:
Originally Posted by v-drive View Post
Thanks, hope not to get lost. My kannada is passable, and tamil knowledge doesn't go beyond the 2G scam.
v-drive, I think the best landmark to remember is the bridge on the river Palar at Arcot.
That would indicate where you need to take the turn from NH46. Beyond that, yes you may need to ask.
You can also use phone GPS through Google just for pointers.
ampere is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 11th August 2011, 14:13   #318
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madras
Posts: 3,094
Thanked: 4,489 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

For guys trying to use the Arcot route (which is going inside Arcot town). There are 2 exits into Arcot, first at 119 km mark and another at 115 km. The first is easier from Bangalore side. There are couple of identifications:

- 5 km after Ratnagiri Murugan Temple (124 km mark), which is visible from the highway.
- 21 km from the very first Vellore bridge (coming from Bangalore side). Vellore town is ~ 138 km mark.

No need to cross Palar bridge which is after both Arcot exits.

- If you guys are coming from Chittoor side, you have to drive towards Vellore on NH46. Arcot exit is 5 km further down. This means Chittoor route merges at 110 km mark, you drive towards Vellore and take the exit at 115 km mark.

PS: All distances are milestone distances towards Madras.

Last edited by narayans80 : 11th August 2011 at 14:17. Reason: Chittoor route
narayans80 is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 11th August 2011, 17:02   #319
Team-BHP Support
 
ampere's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 17,922
Thanked: 12,888 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

Quote:
Originally Posted by narayans80 View Post
- 5 km after Ratnagiri Murugan Temple (124 km mark), which is visible from the highway.
- 21 km from the very first Vellore bridge (coming from Bangalore side). Vellore town is ~ 138 km mark.

No need to cross Palar bridge which is after both Arcot exits.
Narayan,
Can you point the two exits on Google Maps. I am not able to locate them.
Since the bridge is nice and a landmark, which cannot be missed, I thought its easy for people to identify. Especially since every one would be fast on the highway, they can easily miss the smaller landmarks.

Also can you explain, how much does one need to go through the town?
ampere is offline  
Old 11th August 2011, 20:34   #320
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madras
Posts: 3,094
Thanked: 4,489 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

Quote:
Originally Posted by ampere View Post
Can you point the two exits on Google Maps.
The first exit towards is point A on this map.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ampere View Post
Since the bridge is nice and a landmark, which cannot be missed, I thought its easy for people to identify. Especially since every one would be fast on the highway, they can easily miss the smaller landmarks.
Actually that is the reason I had added the distance from the first Vellore bridge itself. The temple too is illuminated with lights at night, so you wont miss that as well. The distances I had mentioned are the milestone distances you see on NH4/NH46.

I found this end of the exit as we waited for the vehicles to get into Arcot from NH46 (Bangalore side). Didn't get into town, so don't know exact town traffic that you encounter.
narayans80 is offline  
Old 12th August 2011, 14:16   #321
BHPian
 
Fortuner71's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Mysore
Posts: 401
Thanked: 344 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

An update , my Brother in law and his family drove from Bangalore to Pondy via krishnagiri - samalpatti - Gingy - t.malai - tindivanam . In fact they are now on their way . 30 to 40 kms of bad roads with good size potholes but certainly driveable . They are in my OHC black beauty . Just to keep all you guys informed . They took 3 hrs to reach T.malai so its seems to be not too bad .
Fortuner71 is offline  
Old 13th August 2011, 19:51   #322
BHPian
 
nileshch's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: BLR / BOM
Posts: 799
Thanked: 477 Times

Reporting from Pondy. After all the bad reviews of the Krishnagiri - Tirumannamalai route, took the Krishnagiri-Kanchipuram-Chengalpattu-Tindivanam-Pondy route today.

Started from Bangalore at 5:30am. Stopped at Arya Bhavan just before Vellore for breakfast at about 7:50am. Crossed Kanchipuram at around 9:30am. The town is crowded and traffic is really unruly. The road SH58 to Chengalpattu is average, like any state highway but without too many potholes. Managed to hit a deep one once though. Reached Chengalpattu at around 10:20am and turned to NH45. after that it was an amazingly smooth drive till I hit a boatload of traffic at Pondicherry! Reached the hotel at around 11:50am.

Total travel time: 6 hrs 20 min.
Total distance: 420 km, a detour of 100 km over the default route
Mileage: 19.4kmpl

@fortuner71, if your bro-in-law is right, would not mind taking the Tiruvannamalai route when going back. Would like to get more details on the conditions.
nileshch is offline  
Old 13th August 2011, 20:22   #323
BHPian
 
Fortuner71's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Mysore
Posts: 401
Thanked: 344 Times

@Nileshch

My BIL took the T.malai route ,as said earlier 30 -40 kms of bad road with pot holes but driveable . Gingee stretch has been patched as mentioned by him . He drove in my OHC without scraping the bottom , so seems to be certainly driveable . Cheers
Fortuner71 is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 13th August 2011, 20:40   #324
BHPian
 
kirantp's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 386
Thanked: 131 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

Guys, You can also take the Bangalore -> Tirpattur->T.annamalai->Pondicherry route if you wish to avoid the 40KM bad stretch. I received this suggestion from a Pondichery localite who is my colleague and does this route every alternate weekend.

Note: This route would be a 40KMS deviation from the usual Bangalore->T.annamalai-> Pondicherry route but worth doing it to keep theLow GC cars in good shape
kirantp is offline   (1) Thanks
Old 15th August 2011, 22:40   #325
BHPian
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 61
Thanked: 16 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

Quote:
Originally Posted by ampere View Post
v-drive, I think the best landmark to remember is the bridge on the river Palar at Arcot.
That would indicate where you need to take the turn from NH46. Beyond that, yes you may need to ask.
Ampere, this route was pretty good. Based on all the suggestions on the forum, i decided to take this route. Turns out, it was 385KM from my house till the place i was staying in Pondy. Took me around 6.5 hours to drive with an hour of breaks. Road was awesome throughout, even the 100 odd KM between Arcot and Tindivanam.
The bridge is a nice and easy to spot landmark and there was a signal just after the bridge on which i could take a u turn and come back to get on to the state highway.
v-drive is offline  
Old 16th August 2011, 11:40   #326
BHPian
 
nileshch's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: BLR / BOM
Posts: 799
Thanked: 477 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

Quote:
Originally Posted by nileshch View Post
Reporting from Pondy. After all the bad reviews of the Krishnagiri - Tirumannamalai route, took the Krishnagiri-Kanchipuram-Chengalpattu-Tindivanam-Pondy route today.
When coming back to Bangalore, I took the brave decision to use the default route through Tiruvannamalai. Had to get back to Bangalore as early as possible. And I did reach much sooner. The return journey through Tindivanam-Tiruvannamalai-Krishnagiri took me just about 5 hours, instead of the 6.5 hours via the Kanchipuram detour. I left Pondicherry at 7:45am and stopped at Koramangala for lunch at 1:00pm. Did not really track the time in between as was busy negotiating the roads!

So while the road is bad, it is not undriveable. The road from Tindivanam till Tiruvannamalai is alright, just like any other state highway, with its share of potholes. After that I had to slow down to about 60-70kmph. There are occasional crater-sized potholes but if you are alert, you can easily see them. The last stretch of about 15 kms approaching Krishnagiri was really bad, straight from the moon.

Total Distance: 320kms
Total time: 5 hours
Mileage: 17.4kmpl

Here is a cost benefit analysis :
The original route is much shorter and saves about 1.5 hours inspite of the bad road quality. The tolls are less -- 85 rs on the original route and 300 rs on the Kanchipuram route. The car took 21 liters of diesel on Kanchipuram detour and 18 liters on the original route.But of course, the Kanchipuram route was more enjoyable and the original route was a little hard on the car, with frequent braking and pothole negotiations.
nileshch is offline  
Old 16th August 2011, 12:14   #327
Team-BHP Support
 
ampere's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 17,922
Thanked: 12,888 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

Quote:
Originally Posted by nileshch View Post
Here is a cost benefit analysis :
The original route is much shorter and saves about 1.5 hours inspite of the bad road quality. The tolls are less -- 85 rs on the original route and 300 rs on the Kanchipuram route. The car took 21 liters of diesel on Kanchipuram detour and 18 liters on the original route.But of course, the Kanchipuram route was more enjoyable and the original route was a little hard on the car, with frequent braking and pothole negotiations.
You did not try Arcot option via Cheyyar/Vandavasi?
That also saves you the time spent negotiating through Kanchi.
ampere is offline  
Old 16th August 2011, 12:22   #328
BHPian
 
nileshch's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: BLR / BOM
Posts: 799
Thanked: 477 Times
re: Bangalore - Pondicherry : Route Queries

Quote:
Originally Posted by ampere View Post
You did not try Arcot option via Cheyyar/Vandavasi?
That also saves you the time spent negotiating through Kanchi.
I was overcautious at the start. So did not want to risk travelling on state highways at all. The Kanchi route has the smallest section of state highway (SH58). About 40 kms.

But on seeing the quality of roads, found them much better than the state highways of some other states Took the plunge when coming back and traveled completely on the original route.
nileshch is offline  
Old 18th August 2011, 13:23   #329
BHPian
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 161
Thanked: 36 Times
Road condition enroute, B'lore to Pondy ?

Hi,

Would like to know the latest road-conditions enroute, from Bangalore to Pondicherry. I am planning on sticking to the shortest (& most common) path i.e. B'lore -> Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Tiruvannamalai -> Gingee -> Pondy.

Read that a large section of around 50-60Kms around Tiruvanannamali is in very bad condition (but that's from a Oct'2010 trip report). Is it still so ?

If anyone has done the route via Vellore and found it to be in comparatively much better shape, I might take it too, though it adds an extra 50-60Kms, and not sure if it is very scenic.

Thanks in anticipation.

cheers,
Banibrata

Last edited by Jaggu : 18th August 2011 at 14:21. Reason: Please use Search before opening a new thread. Thanks
bdutta is offline  
Old 18th August 2011, 14:49   #330
BHPian
 
nileshch's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: BLR / BOM
Posts: 799
Thanked: 477 Times
Re: Road condition enroute, B'lore to Pondy ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by bdutta View Post
Hi,

Would like to know the latest road-conditions enroute, from Bangalore to Pondicherry. I am planning on sticking to the shortest (& most common) path i.e. B'lore -> Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Tiruvannamalai -> Gingee -> Pondy.

Read that a large section of around 50-60Kms around Tiruvanannamali is in very bad condition (but that's from a Oct'2010 trip report). Is it still so ?

If anyone has done the route via Vellore and found it to be in comparatively much better shape, I might take it too, though it adds an extra 50-60Kms, and not sure if it is very scenic.
Banibrata, check the previous few posts. You should find all your answers!
nileshch is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks