[racer_m]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

I have driven on this route: Hoskote-->Ranipet(via NH4)-->Cheyyar-->Vandavasi, Tamil Nadu-->Tindivanam, Tamil Nadu-->Puducherry. This will be my favourite route until 6-laning works are completed in GQ.

Cool so I'm set to go now. thanks for the tip. BTW any good places to stop by for Snacks/Breakfast. Planning 6 am drive out.

Originally Posted by racer_m

any good places to stop by for Snacks/Breakfast.

1. Kamat Upachar, Narasapura, near Kolar [60 km from Bangalore on LHS service road] attached to IOCL Jubilee Retail Outlet

2. Woody's, on RHS below the grade-separator at Tamaka on Kolar bypass before Devaraj Urs Medical College

3. Adiga's, after Kolar bypass, on RHS

4. Atleast 4 CCD outlets on both the sides of NH4 starting from Kolar bypass to Chittoor bypass.

Please note that you won't find good eateries after Chittoor bypass until you reach Tindivanam bypass, where Arya's is located on NH 45.

[neon_daytona]

I stay in whitefield and visiting Zest/Club mahindra at Pondicherry.

Want to cover Kanchipuram during return. Is the route through krishnagiri and vellore the right one? or the One through NH4?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by neon_daytona

I stay in whitefield and visiting Zest/Club mahindra at Pondicherry.

Want to cover Kanchipuram during return. Is the route through krishnagiri and vellore the right one? or the One through NH4?

If you are in whitefield, there is no point coming to Hosur. Take the road via Kolar. That would be much faster in transit.

[racer_m]

Originally Posted by neon_daytona

I stay in whitefield and visiting Zest/Club mahindra at Pondicherry.

Want to cover Kanchipuram during return. Is the route through krishnagiri and vellore the right one? or the One through NH4?

Hi if you have not travelled yet, strongly suggest you to not take the NH4/Kolar/Ranipet route.
Just returned today from Pondicherry after staying in Zest Big Beach

The road becomes horrible with slow moving trucks and obstacles once the toll road ends in the Kolar region. from there to Arcot, its a painful narrow 2 lane undivided road. took me 8 hours to reach Puducherry

Would be much better off taking the toll roads from Hosur/Krishnagiri/Vellore
I did that whille coming back. Took me 6.5 hours

[ampere]

Originally Posted by racer_m

The road becomes horrible with slow moving trucks and obstacles once the toll road ends in the Kolar region. from there to Arcot, its a painful narrow 2 lane undivided road. took me 8 hours to reach Puducherry

Was it that bad? I did find truck traffic, but it was not heavy. Mulbagal bypass was bad. But later I also read, they had also fixed it.

Of course you cant do three digit speeds, but I thought a leisurely 70-90 can be easily done.

What time of the dat was it?

[racer_m]

Originally Posted by ampere

Was it that bad? I did find truck traffic, but it was not heavy. Mulbagal bypass was bad. But later I also read, they had also fixed it.

Of course you cant do three digit speeds, but I thought a leisurely 70-90 can be easily done.

What time of the dat was it?

I would say the road infrastructure overall is not the bad part. Its the traffic and some bottlenecks that's real BAD.
I left on Old madras road at 6:30 on 6th. Once the road became undivided, could see all the maddening rush. On one RTO check post(dunno the name) the truck had all lined up and ended up wasting 5-6 minutes stuck behind stalled traffic.

Then there were long line of trailers, overtaking them is a pain especially when the roads are also not straight and keep curving frequently.

Then the usual rogue buses, tempos and SUV who keep driving you off road and sometimes bully you to a stop, both while they overtaking or me being overtaken. had some 5-6 handful encounters.

Overall to maintain even the cruising 80 KMPH one has to constantly workout and feels drained after a few hours.

I would prefer paying toll and enjoying a relaxed ride at 90-100 on them rather than gambling with my ride everytime I overtake.

P.S. Visting Pondicherry on 6th was a bad idea. Rained the whole day heavily and ended up washing out out sightseeing plans

[ampere]

Originally Posted by racer_m

Overall to maintain even the cruising 80 KMPH one has to constantly workout and feels drained after a few hours.

Looks like unfortunate. Even I would love to take the 4-lane. But Hosur-Krishnagiri really puts me off. If you start early, the heavy lights of on-coming traffic is kills you (Though Toll booths are empty). If you start later, Hosur is a pain and not to mention mile long queues on the toll booths.

Beyond Krishnagiri its easy in spite of diversions.

[chel]

Last Weekend went to Zest Pondi from Bangalore.
While going took Kolar-Chittor - Ranipet-Arcot-Tindivananm-Pondi -> As mentioned in earlier post, road is good but check post+ truck traffic.
While returning took-Pondi-Tinidvanam-Tiruvanamali-Krishnagiri-Hosur-Bangalore-> Horrible road condition from Tindivanam till krishnagiri. Krishnagiri to Hosur manageable except few diversions.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by chel

Last Weekend went to Zest Pondi from Bangalore.
While going took Kolar-Chittor - Ranipet-Arcot-Tindivananm-Pondi -> As mentioned in earlier post, road is good but check post+ truck traffic.
While returning took-Pondi-Tinidvanam-Tiruvanamali-Krishnagiri-Hosur-Bangalore-> Horrible road condition from Tindivanam till krishnagiri. Krishnagiri to Hosur manageable except few diversions.

A different option for return:

Pondicherry-Villupuram-Tiruvannamalai-Harur-Morappur-Karimangalam-Palacode-Rayakottai-Kelamangalam-Attebele.

Roads are good through out, but end to end of 2-lane.

[neon_daytona]

Took the Krishnagiri vellore route for onward journey and also covered Kanchipuram. Good roads but quite long route and lots of tolls.

Started at 6.15AM from Whitefield and covered 460 kms till Zest in 9 hours, with 1.5 hours of breaks (Breakfast and temple visit).

On return I wanted to cover Raman Ashram at Tiruvanamalai. Did not know of the road option in the previous post. Very bad roads from Tindivanam to Krishnagiri.

Started at 10AM from Zest and covered 315kms in 11 hours with 2.5 hours of break (Lunch, Ashram visit and dinner).

[NPV]

Originally Posted by chel

Last Weekend went to Zest Pondi from Bangalore.
While going took Kolar-Chittor - Ranipet-Arcot-Tindivananm-Pondi -> As mentioned in earlier post, road is good but check post+ truck traffic.

What time did you start from Bangalore ? Asking since I've been on this route enroute Tirupati and Chennai twice each recently and never encountered heavy truck traffic in the morning (started from home near KR Puram by 5 am on all occasions).

While returning took-Pondi-Tinidvanam-Tiruvanamali-Krishnagiri-Hosur-Bangalore-> Horrible road condition from Tindivanam till krishnagiri. Krishnagiri to Hosur manageable except few diversions.

Originally Posted by neon_daytona

On return I wanted to cover Raman Ashram at Tiruvanamalai. Did not know of the road option in the previous post. Very bad roads from Tindivanam to Krishnagiri.

The last several pages of this thread discuss the horrific condiion of roads in this route and several alternatives/variants have been identified

[Deepalivg]

Hello,
I am planning to drive to Pondy from Bangalore this April, just wanted to know how is the road condition. I could not search any latest thread regarding road condition, hence posting this question.If anyone has travelled by car, please share experience

Thanks

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Deepalivg

Hello,
I am planning to drive to Pondy from Bangalore this April, just wanted to know how is the road condition. I could not search any latest thread regarding road condition, hence posting this question.If anyone has travelled by car, please share experience

Thanks

The route should be

Hosur krisnagiri Vellore Arcot Cheyyar Vanvdavasi Tindivanam pondy

It's good roads all the way. Arcot to Tindivanam is decent two laned roads.

[Voyager-1]

Has anybody tried this road from Tindivanam-Pondy highway to ECR? It goes through Olunthiyapattu village and joins ECR near The Dune resort. If one needs to reach any resort north of Pondy (or north of Pondy University to be precise), this seems to be a shorter route (by 12 kms) compared to the Auroville road.

http://goo.gl/maps/V6uwr

I am planning to try this route for my visit to Pondy this week.