[Glifford]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Refuel in TN, so much more cheaper.
5 Star petrol pump immediately after crossing Hosur town accepts credit cards.
Further down (25 kms) you have both HPCL (with McD) and BPCL (with A2B), both accept credit cards. I am sure you have enough gas to run 50-75 kms?

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

After entering Tamil Nadu, have tankful of fuel at BP COCO Ghar Dhaba at Chinnar before Krishnagiri toll plaza. Here the COCO outlet is open 24 x 7 and Ghar Dhaba A2B is open from 6 am to midnight. At Shoolagiri, HP COCO outlet [24 x 7] is located with McD, CCD and Sri Krishna Bhavan. Another HP COCO outlet [24 x 7] with Arya Bhavan is located just after Pallikonda toll plaza on RHS of NH 46 while going from Bangalore towards Chennai. They all accept credit/debit cards.

Thanks Ampere, HVKumar & J.Ravi! Certainly have a range of 100 plus in the tank. More so considering highway driving. So will take the gamble!

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

At Chinnar BP COCO pump, petrol is cheaper by Rs 2.50 a litre. At Ashram BP pump in Pondy, Rs 8/litre less than that of Bangalore.

Would save me about Rs. 100 in TN. Not exactly worth the gamble, but more for the fun of it. :P

Of course on the return I would save a lot


Another question. Have fond memories of Hotel Saravana Bhavan (HSB) during my last visit to Chennai and also driving back through Vellore. Was thinking of getting into Vellore to HSB for breakfast. Considering it is 200 km away, is it far fetched? Would only be possible if we manage a 4:00 AM start. Considering there is a toddler in tow, may be unlikely. Saw references of other equivalents such as A2B on this thread. Do you think A2B can come close to HSB? Or any other equivalents? If yes, I may combine the tank ups for car and selves

Originally Posted by Glifford

AWas thinking of getting into Vellore to HSB for breakfast. Considering it is 200 km away, is it far fetched?

If you leave Bangalore at 4 am, you can be at Hotel Saravana Bhavan [HSB], Vellore, by 8 am just in time for breakfast. You have to go below the Satthuvachari flyover and take right turn towards CMC, Vellore. HSB is located after Kagithapattarai before CMC about 2 km from NH 46. Click here for the route.

Do you think A2B can come close to HSB? Or any other equivalents? If yes, I may combine the tank ups for car and selves

My ranking: HSB gets the first rank and A2B the second. You can have coffee at A2B and breakfast at HSB! There is a fake HSB at Nehru Street, Pondicherry. Don't ever step into that. It's a lousy restaurant encashing on HSB's popularity.

[ampere]

Now that there is a CCD at Vanyambadi, its even better.
So there is no need to hold on for A2B. I though like HSB, I dont like to get off the main highway.
From that point of view, if you start early morning, A2B wont be open, So, there is actually no option (apart from CCD which come earlier).

From that point of view the new CCD helps in a big way.

[ajithbr]

I believe the arrow marking in the map is opposite to the direction you travelled. So, will it be possible to mark the location of the photos given below in the map as well? Will be of great help for a BLR->Pondy drive

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

I always dread bypassing Tindivanam whenever I drive between Bangalore and Pondicherry. Not any more with the new railway overbridge across College Road thrown open to public traffic recently. In June 2011, the bridge was still under construction as detailed in my post.

Yesterday, I drove in my Linea from Pondicherry to Bangalore via Tindivanam bypass, Vandavasi, Cheyyar and Arcot bypass. I took College Road bypass to access SH 5 as detailed in the following photographs:
Attachment 884029
Attachment 884030
Attachment 884031
Attachment 884032
Attachment 884033
This is the route to bypass Tindivanam via College Road as shown in MapMyIndia map:
Attachment 884042
There are many bad patches on SH 5 thanks to the recent monsoon fury, but the good news is that they are either being patched up or laid with a new coat of asphalt. I saw works in progress in few locations. Road widening works from 4 lanes to 6 are in progress on Hosur-Krishnagiri-Ranipet section. No shoulders in those works-in-progress sections.

[vsbabu]

Just drove to Pondicherry from Bangalore - usual Arcot -> Cheyyar -> Vandavasi - Thellar route.

Updates:

• 4 days ago, when I went back, Thellar to Arcot Byepass was not in a good shape with lots of potholes (not huge ones, but still many). Very surprised today. From Arcot to Cheyyar, most of the places have freshly laid road. Where it is not, it not bad at all.
• From Cheyyar to Vandavasi, again, many stretches are newly done.
• Vandavasi to Thellar - some super smooth roads. Note that the work is done till just before Thellar and the huge machinery is parked half on to the road. Almost got into one after a blind curve - totally couldn't spot it at night.
• One word of caution in all these new roads. The divider lane marking is not there now -- so if you use that to figure out curves on the road during night driving, you are in tough luck. Many curves have fine loose gravel (left over from tarring) - very easy to loose grip; and if oncoming traffic is there, you get flying debris on your windscreen.

To avoid Thindivanam and to take College Road byepass:
About 8-9km after Thellar, you will see boards for a village called "Ural". 1.5km after Ural, you will see the green boards showing left to Chennai, straight to Tindivanam. Take the left. Go straight. Right after the overbridge, you will see the Trichy-Chennai highway. You've to take a right turn on the highway (quite scary with very high speed traffic and hardly any space to wait on the dividing area). First, you will see an exit to Tindivanam. Ignore it. Next one comes after 2-3km - take that, take left out of the exit to Pondicherry.

HTH

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by vsbabu

To avoid Thindivanam and to take College Road byepass:
About 8-9km after Thellar, you will see boards for a village called "Ural". 1.5km after Ural, you will see the green boards showing left to Chennai, straight to Tindivanam. Take the left. Go straight. Right after the overbridge, you will see the Trichy-Chennai highway. You've to take a right turn on the highway (quite scary with very high speed traffic and hardly any space to wait on the dividing area). First, you will see an exit to Tindivanam. Ignore it. Next one comes after 2-3km - take that, take left out of the exit to Pondicherry.

HTH

Just curious - are you off by about 10 kms above? From post#453, one of the photos shows the sign-board at the intersection of College Road and SH-5 which shows Tindivanam=3 kms and Vandavasi=33 kms. Now, Thellar->Tindivanam as per GM is about 25 kms and that means Thellar->CollegeRoad is about 20-22 kms. Anyway, will watch out the junction where we see the green boards showing left to Chennai, straight to Tindivanam as per your post on any drive to Pondy in the near future.

[vsbabu]

Originally Posted by ajithbr

Just curious - are you off by about 10 kms above?

You are right. From Thellar, after some time, you will boards like (a) Thindivanam 10km (b) Karpakkam 1km to the right (c) Ooral 1km to left (d) Ural (e) The byepass; green board on the left; blue color board on the right for people coming from the byepass.

Originally Posted by ajithbr

I believe the arrow marking in the map is opposite to the direction you travelled.

My itinerary was Bangalore>Chennai>Pondy>Tindivanam>Bangalore. I photographed as I had driven from Tindivanam to Bangalore.

As regards to College Road bypass, as you travel on SH 5 towards Tindivanam, you will see a signage clearly indicating the bypass for Chennai, although you will not find Pondicherry mentioned on the board! That is approximately 3 km before Tindivanam. Take left turn at this T-junction to NH 45, cross it and turn to right towards NH 45 Tindivanam bypass. Again on Tindivanam bypass, you have to take the down ramp on your left. There is tiny signage indicating this.

[pypkmsrikanth]

To find the detour onto College Road Byepass and the detour to Pondicherry on the mail Tindivanam byepass is not so difficult. You might have some difficulty in the dark but nothing to worry about. At both these Jns. you would have enough vehicles in front of you taking the turns, especially in the case of College Road turnoff you would find even TNSTC buses bound for Chennai from Thiruvannamalai taking the turn.

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

My itinerary was Bangalore>Chennai>Pondy>Tindivanam>Bangalore. I photographed as I had driven from Tindivanam to Bangalore.

As regards to College Road bypass, as you travel on SH 5 towards Tindivanam, you will see a signage clearly indicating the bypass for Chennai, although you will not find Pondicherry mentioned on the board! That is approximately 3 km before Tindivanam. Take left turn at this T-junction to NH 45, cross it and turn to right towards NH 45 Tindivanam bypass. Again on Tindivanam bypass, you have to take the down ramp on your left. There is tiny signage indicating this.

Thanks for the info. Is there a BP for Vandavasi? Or is it an easy town to cross?

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

My itinerary was Bangalore>Chennai>Pondy>Tindivanam>Bangalore. I photographed as I had driven from Tindivanam to Bangalore.

Those photographs were informative as well as some smile-invoking or thought-provoking(weekend assignment?) too
You start with TVMalai=67 on NH-45, then before FlyOver (pointA), it is 70 kms and when you hit SH-5, it is again 67kms(pointB). So, (pointA-pointB)=3 kms if I am planning to travel towards T.V.Malai on those famous beauty roads via Gingee

And from NH-45 junction to SH-5 junction, I have covered 0 (ZERO) kms :-)

Now, if I am driving to Vandavasi, pointA(38kms)-pointB(33kms)=5 kms and so I need to drive an additional couple of kms than when I am driving to T.V.Malai

This is a common scenario on many roads, I have observed ! Any comments?

Originally Posted by ajithbr

Is there a BP for Vandavasi? Or is it an easy town to cross?

There is no bypass for Vandavasi. You have to wade through the busy market, which is one-way. If you go in the day time, you have to drive carefully through the congested market. During the night, it is deserted. The good news is that Cheyyar has a beautiful bypass.

Regarding the signages on NH 45 and SH 5, the confusion is due to the lack of co-ordination between NHAI [who maintain NH 45] and TN Highways Department [who are responsible for SH].

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

There is no bypass for Vandavasi. You have to wade through the busy market, which is one-way. If you go in the day time, you have to drive carefully through the congested market. During the night, it is deserted. The good news is that Cheyyar has a beautiful bypass.

Back from a "sooper" drive to Pondy and back a couple of hours ago. Will post some details later, but the short summary of bye-passes on the newly popular Arcot route to Pondy is as follows:

Cross Vellore.

Arcot->Ignore all the exits (towards right) to Arcot town, cross Palar river(bed) on a long bridge that comes immediately after a sharp left curve, immediately exit 4L, take a U-turn under the bridge, cross back the river and immediately take left ByePass road running parallel to river-bed. There is a clear big OVERHEAD board that says Tindivanam=95Kms marked to left to indicate the start of Arcot bye-pass. And the good news is that it is in great condition now with freshly laid tarmac.

Cheyyar->Beautiful bye-pass that comes just before the town. Watch out for an HP Petrol pump, a matriculation school and Govt Arts college on your left just when you reach Cheyyar. The road will then have a Y-fork with a small blue board on the RHS saying Cheyyar (straight) and ByePass Road(right). Once you take bye-pass, you will immediately cross Arani road and then the bye-pass ends just before Cheyyar bridge. Take right when bye-pass ends, cross the bridge and take immediate left. Straight goes to Polur and Tiruvannamalai.

Vandavasi->The bye-pass is getting ready and will hopefully be opened in a month's time. Just about 2kms before Vandavasi, you will see a left(decent 2L road) marked as Chennai/Kanchipuram and most of the lorries taking that route. Not sure of the condition of the road even though I have seen that it is a very wide WIP road (with some moderate traffic including lorries and TN Govt buses from Chennai/Kanchipuram entering Vandavasi) when it joins back SH-5 just after the one-way roads are over and we exit Vandavasi. If we ignore that left road, we will reach the T-junction where Arani road joins from the right. Just at this junction, there is again a very wide WIP road (entry blocked now) supposed to be the near future BP that would be on a natural straight line alignment to SH-5 instead of the current left-turn to Vandavasi town, err, market !

Tindivanam->Watch out for a big green board on the LHS just about 3 kms before Tindivanam. That board mentions Chennai-124(Left), Pondicherry-41(Straight) and Tiruvannamalai-66(Right). Ignore the directions for Pondicherry here and take left,cross Tindivanam Engg College on your right, cross Railway line on the newly opened over-bridge, join and cross NH-45 (or GST) to take a right turn. Ignore the next exit to Tindivanam and about 3 kms later, there is a small exit to left (just before the flyover above NH-66) marked as Pondicherry.

An important thing I have noted that would be very informative to the new drivers on this route is that at the start of Arcot bye-pass, there is a clear big board that says Tindivanam=95Kms. And as you drive on SH-5, there is a board almost every km or so that says Tindivanam ..92, 91, 90.. kms and every junction has new boards (in English too) that says which way to take for Tindivanam. Only place you are misled while driving to Pondy will be the College road junction with SH-5 as mentioned above (Pondy=41kms marked straight instead of the recommened LEFT).

On the reverse direction, keep a note of distances shown to Arcot(almost every km) and then finally you see Arcot=4 kms, and then another yellow board on RHS that says Krishnagiri=145 kms and then a small room temple (and a stone that says Arcot=3 kms lying flat on the ground) just where you need to take right for the bye-pass. Even if you dont remember anything, just remember to drive parallel and adjacent to river bed when you are about 5 kms from Arcot and you will join the 4L just at the junction of Palar bridge. This is the first exit to Arcot for people coming from Chennai/Kanchipuram side and there are good signages here.

One interesting point noted while driving on the 4L stretch of NH-66 between Tindivanam and Pondy. On either direction, you will see distance boards mentioning Chennai, towards Pondy through the ECR and towards Tindivanam through NH-45 (or GST).

Many times repeated in the forum, but would like to stress that after the Pallikonda toll gate, you immediately have Deepam(on RHS) with a median to cross, the CCD+ABS(Arya Bhavan) on the HP pump(again on RHS) for which you need to take a U-turn a-la Thoppur A2B, then the LAST option next to 4L which is the Aryas under the flyover (an exit to Service road on the left for Katpadi marked immediately before the exit just before the fly-over and easy to miss when you are driving even 60+ speed, forget the 100+ norms in the stretch). Beyond this, absolutely NOTHING DECENT till you enter Pondicherry town.

Hope these points will be helpful !

[ampere]

Originally Posted by ajithbr

An important thing I have noted that would be very informative to the new drivers on this route is that at the start of Arcot bye-pass, there is a clear big board that says Tindivanam=95Kms.

Is this a new by-pass you are referring to?
Because I always used to go the Palar bridge as the option to latch on to SH5.

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by ampere

Is this a new by-pass you are referring to?
Because I always used to go the Palar bridge as the option to latch on to SH5.

Same as your route only !
When you cross back Palar bridge after taking the U-turn, you will reach the same junction (no right turn while going from Bangalore) with petrol pumps on both sides(BP towards Vellore and IOC towards Chennai). Just at this junction immediately after the bridge on the return direction, there is the overhead board that I am referring to. It says Tindivanam=95 kms towards left and Arcot=1km straight ... also, I think Vellore=24kms or so towards right(4L turns a sharp right towards Vellore/Bangalore) as well.

If I used "new" anywhere, it was only intended to convey that the bye-pass road has "new" freshly laid tarmac and hence you can fly. Earlier, it used to be a bumpy ride. Anyway, AFAIK, Arcot has only one bye-pass which is the same one on the eastern(Chennai) side as on the other side, you may have to (painfully) cut through Melvisharam. Not sure if there is indeed a better option that helps drive non-stop as the bye-pass we are referring to.