Traveled to Pondicherry during the weekend with wife in my Fiat Punto. We started from Domlur around 1:45 p.m. I had gone through this thread to check the road conditions of Pondicherry road before starting the journey. On finding that its in very bad condition, decided on taking NH46 like many of you have advised. The only confusion was whether to take diversion from Vellore or from Kanchipuram towards Tindivanam. Decided to take a chance and take diversion from Vellore.
We reached Vellore around 5:15 p.m after taking a lunch break (the total kms run was 180 and time took was 3 hrs). Checked with some locals about going to Tindivanam through Arani. They helped me with the correct path and also was aided by google maps. The travel through Vellore city towards Arani was really bad. The roads are pretty bad for the first 15 or so minutes and add to that there was heavy traffic (considering we had reached Vellore at around 5:30 on a Friday evening). After the initial 15-20 mins, the road became slightly better and was able to travel at better speeds of 60-70 kmph.Upon reaching Arani the plan was to get to Tindivanam via Chetpat as google maps suggested. But asked the opinion with an auto driver who suggested that it was better to travel via Vandavasi (according to him the road to Tindivanam was 'super') as the road via Chetpet was very bad. So decided to take his advise and that route but was shocked to see the road condition initially. There were big potholes and it was already
dark. Was wondering whether it was a very bad decision, but decided to carry on. But to my absolute relief (and the auto driver was right, after all) after traveling for 10 mins or so, the road got better. In fact it was pretty good and seemed like it was asphalted recently. My wife was a bit worried as there was hardly anyone on the road and felt like we were going through a jungle. She was hoping that the car would run smoothly without any issues as she badly wanted not to spend the night in that path
Reached Tindivanam cruising and saw a PY registration vehicle and decided to follow it. But... the guy took a turn towards Chennai from the Tindivanam bridge instead of towards Pondy,like expected, which we didn't notice. We noticed only when we saw the Chennai highway and not the Pondy NH66. So went back and took the correct route to Pondi. The travel via NH66 was really nice. The roads were almost perfect, apart from few areas where one side work was still going on. The toll plaza is almost done, but no toll collection has started. Reached our Hotel at Pondicherry by 9:45 p.m.
So this is the route that we took
Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Vellore - Arani - Vandavasi - Tindivanam - Pondy (total kms traveled 385, time taken 7 hrs 45 mins running and mileage of 17.4 kmpl, pretty good for a 1.4l petrol vehicle).
We started our return journey to Bangalore on Sunday around 10:30 a.m. Filled tankful of petrol for Rs 55 and change/litre (how cool is that? )compared to Rs 65 plus change in Bangalore and headed towards Tindivanam via SH66. We had decided that we won't be taking the route via Arani which we had taken during our onward journey to Pondy. Instead, decided to take Chennai road (NH45) to Chengalpet and then head to Kanchipuram(thanks to J.Ravi for that update). Reached Chengalpet in 2 hrs and asked for best direction towards Kanchipuram from an auto driver. He told us to take the SH58 to Kanchi. The road initially was pretty bad (as has been the case with almost all the state highways taken in this trip). Afterwards it got better and the journey till Walajabad was decent. From Walajabad onwards the roads were not so good and again traffic was pretty bad till Kanchipuram. Took the road to NH4 without much difficulty(thanks to google maps) and afterwards the journey till Bangalore was a breeze.
This was the return trip route
Pondicherry - Tindivanam - Chengalpet - Kanchipuram - Krishanagiri - Bangalore
Total kms - 425, Time taken - 7 hrs, Mileage - exactly 17.0 kmpl.
Key things learned from this trip
* Google maps is awesome, but there is no substitute to proper directions and road conditions given by real human beings
* Carry food with you if traveling in this route especially since there are hardly any good restaurants on NH46.
* Android phone's battery discharges faster than the speed of your car. Get a second battery or a car charger (still to find one with a USB port)
* People help you even more if you can speak their mother tongue. I can speak Tamil to some extent and now it's time to improve Kannada (reading and writing)
* Like many people have mentioned before, better late than never. Saw atleast couple of accidents on the return journey one of which involved a new Ford Figo.
Finally thanks to all for regularly updating this thread. It was of real help while planning for the trip. Thank you all for reading my bit and off I go now to polish my Kannada.