[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by ampere

Krishnagiri-TV Malai is about 120 and not 50. Also the route difference is about 30-35 and not more. Here is the google route link:

Via Morappur/Harur

My Bad, I tried to feed Harur and TV Malai and google joined the route halfway. the direction you showed takes me from Harur to TV Malai directly.

It was this difference i felt was only 50km of bad roads, 120km surely means something else. and i Agree this is additional 35kms

Thanks alot for the direction.

one more Doubt. The other option for me is to go via Kanchipuram(i can even go via Chittoor route for this) and this works out to be around 370kms as compared to your suggestion 360km.

Which one is better among these two ?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

It was this difference i felt was only 50km of bad roads, 120km surely means something else. and i Agree this is additional 35kms

Oh yes, I fell to it once. Some how even if you feed Harur, Google tries to route via Chengam rather the straighter SH.

one more Doubt. The other option for me is to go via Kanchipuram(i can even go via Chittoor route for this) and this works out to be
around 370kms as compared to your suggestion 360km.

Which one is better among these two ?

I understand that you want to use OMR as thats an easier access for you. I think this might be good too. Any way E-City-Hosur-Krishnagiri
is full of construction. Compared to that you get a smoother ride all the way till Chitoor.

The only negative is : traffic on Walaja-Kanchi sector and wading through Kanchi town to find the road to Chengalpet. From there on
you are on 4-lane.

May not be a bad idea if you start late in the day. For an early start, Hosur option may be still better. You get to drive on SH and through
country roads as well! And they are in good conditions too.

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by ampere

May not be a bad idea if you start late in the day. For an early start, Hosur option may be still better. You get to drive on SH and through
country roads as well! And they are in good conditions too.

Perfect. I plan to start Saturday morning but not yet sure about the timing

Its always good to have two options isnt it

[ampere]

While looking at the maps and discussing in thread, just realized there is another possible alternative route to Pondicherry which can be more fun.
This route also takes through ghat sections. Distance via its almost the same. (350-360km).

But thought this can add to fun of driving.


Bangalore-Krishnagiri-Vanyambadi-Polur-Chetpat-Vandavasi-Tindivanam-Pondycherry.

Vanymabadi is the same place where one turns for Yelagiri.
One needs to get off the GQ and take the SH to Polur which goes a ghat section as well.

I have no idea about this section thought.

Bangalore-Pondicherry Via Vanyabadi-Polur

[PatchyBoy]

Guys,

I live somewhere between KR Puram and Hosakote. Planning on a trip to Pondicherry in the first weekend of August. I would prefer taking the OMR out of Bangalore for obvious reasons.

I could not find any recent updates here. The latest update I could find elsewhere was from Dec 2011. Here is the route I am planning to take.

From that update, I understand that the 100 km stretch between Arcot to Thindivanam is 2 lane in a reasonable good condition with the occasional pothole.

Any updates will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Rajan

[narayans80]

Arcot-Tindivanam is the better option right now.

Originally Posted by PatchyBoy

I live somewhere between KR Puram and Hosakote. Planning on a trip to Pondicherry in the first weekend of August. I would prefer taking the OMR out of Bangalore for obvious reasons.

Got to say, you have to drive towards Bangalore about 5 km (Ranipet to Arcot) to catch that road from Old Madras Road.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by PatchyBoy

Any updates will be greatly appreciated.

Easiest is as Narayan said, drive till Ranipet. Get into the town, drive back towards Bangalore on the 4-laned GQ (towards Vellore).

The instant you cross the bridge on Palar, get off the highway (on your left) at the first signal.
Thats the road to Cheyyar.

Here is the route link

By the way when creating this link, I see that at the start point there is a hotel called :
MGM Highway Resort. Any details on that? Is it a good place?

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by ampere

By the way when creating this link, I see that at the start point there is a hotel called :
MGM Highway Resort. Any details on that? Is it a good place?

Ranipet has MGM Resort & Pride Hotel, both are good hotels to take a break, they are on the two sides of the NH just before you enter the town. They cater to the corporate crowd who visit the Ranipet Industrial Estate which has big companies like BHEL etc.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

Ranipet has MGM Resort & Pride Hotel, both are good hotels to take a break, they are on the two sides of the NH just before you enter the town. They cater to the corporate crowd who visit the Ranipet Industrial Estate which has big companies like BHEL etc.

That is good! Thanks for that.

Especially if the place caters to corporate crowd it should be sufficiently good.
So one more place added for breaks on the Chitoor route to Chennai.

What I am surprised is how come no one till date has been to this place?
Looks like the Chitoor route has picked up steam recently thanks to 6-lane work on the GQ.

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by ampere

That is good! Thanks for that.

What I am surprised is how come no one till date has been to this place?
Looks like the Chitoor route has picked up steam recently thanks to 6-lane work on the GQ.

I tried to go to both above places. Pride hotel looks really posh and the corporate lunch might be bit steep. Not something i like when i drive. Heavy food makes me sleepy

Mgm felt more vfm and is typical multi cuisine

I could not eat at both because i hit ranipet at 11:45 and both hotels said lunch ready only post 12:30pm

Chennai-blr is just 5 hrs on this route so its better to plan the trip

[prasad14]

Hi,

Plan to drive to Pondy this weekend (from JP Nagar, Bangalore). This thread had previously recommended:
BLR-Krishnagiri-Arcot-Vandavasi-Tindivanam-Pondy

Is this still the best route?

Prasad

[dhuli]

There is this agriculturist's relative from Singarapettai who mentioned that the shorter route from Bangalore (via Samalapatti > uthangarai > Singarapettai > Chengam > Thiruvannamalai > Gingee > Tindivanam > Pondicherry) is having repairs done. Can anyone confirm that? I remember from 2 years back that this road resemble lunar surface especially shortly after getting off the GQ at Krishnagiri.

Originally Posted by ampere

What I am surprised is how come no one till date has been to this place? Looks like the Chitoor route has picked up steam recently thanks to 6-lane work on the GQ.

You are absolutely right! People seem to favour the Kolar Chitoor route. No more pitstops at A2B near Shoolagiri. BTW, I tried MGM, Ranipet. Looks very nice in the evening. Decent place with well mannered staff...except service was slow when I tried. Spacious and even has a kids play area, clean toilets.

[prasad14]

I returned this evening from Pondy and thought of giving some updates. I took the BHPian's official route: B'lore-Vellore-Thindivanam-Pondy. On the way though (when I was confused to get onto highway from Auroville) a localite said that the Tiruvannamalai road is patched up. I was inclined to try that out for a while, but stuck to the Vellore route.

1. 6 laning work starts almost as soon as Hosur and was going on till we branched off at Arcot. Though it is not affecting much, it does deprive the cushion that shoulder offers. Folks on the left lane, therefore tend to be driving more closer to right lane than normal (the ones that care about lanes though).

2. In some places 6 lanes are done, but without marking and its free for all and is scary (I've a feeling that since a lot of auto/cab/truck/bus drivers are not even aware of the concept of lane, we might not get the full advantage of 6-lane). Where its marked, I saw lots of trucks on the fastest lane. Even if we have 20-lanes, truck drivers still would drive on the right most lane. In the hills b/w Hosur and Krishnagiri, there were trucks climbing the hills slowly on all 3 lanes!

3. Arcot-Tindivanam roads are very good with low traffic. Just after Vandavasi (towards Tindivanam), the govt is building 8-10 bridges in a stretch of about 12kms, which would slow you down. I also noticed that the roads get pretty good for 6-8kms followed by a rough patch of 1-2kms or so, but no need to slow down.

4. Highly grateful to @vsbabu for his detailed instructions and @J.Ravi for the photos to bypass Tindivanam. The posts by these two BHPians are so accurate that you just need not have to ask anyone.

5. We took a deviation to Golden Temple, first right after Pallikonda toll booth. If anyone is doing this and continuing towards Pondy, I strongly reco coming back and joining the highway, rather than going thru Vellore city
(as an aside, I got bugged with the authorities running this temple, first they diverted me "premium" parking and charged Rs.50 - perhaps the highest I might have paid in India, except airports and later made us believe that there is a huge Que, which would take 3.5hrs for darshan and sold us some Rs.250 tickets for "special" darshan and seva). The temple is gorgeous, we had a great darshan, but I'm left with this bitter feeling of being cheated not by touts, but by the staff of the temple (but then I deserve it as I had not made my homework and also a cursory inspection would have revealed the truth).

6. The route from inside of Auroville to ECR appears easier, but tricky with many forks. It would be great if someone that frequents the route give a few bullet points to navigate this 8-10kms from the toll-gate to ECR.

Prasad

[Wheeliej]

The last time I went to pondy was they thirucanamalai in oct 2010 and severely regretted it. The road had huge craters every 30 feet. On the return we came via thindivanam and vellore bypass and the road was good.

Road from and to auroville is strictly guess work. Tho there is one right turn that has to be taken at a t kind of junction with some shops......

We are planning on visiting again and will take the Bangalore to hosur to vellore to tindivanam to pondy .

[ankan.m.blr]

Planning to drive to Pondy middle of August. which route will be better? Krishnagiri - Vellore - Tindivanam OR Krishanagiri - Harur - Tindivanam ?