[aadya]

Spent a weekend in Pondicherry, recently. Started on Friday morning 6.30 AM from Marathahalli. 15minutes fuel(BP) and had a cofee stop at Chinnar A2B. Continued till Arcot in the Six Lane highway.

Took Cheyyar road from Arcot. Had a 45min break at a temple just after Arcot. Arcot to Tindivanam via Cheyyar(byepass) and Vandavasi(byepass) was comfortable drive. Two lanes decently paved roads with light traffic. Occcasional Potholes and few stretches of rough road(can do 60kmph) make the drive cautious and slower, but overall no complaints.

Tindivanam to Pondicherry is a wonderful drive. Hardly any traffic for such a wide and beautiful road. I had frequently travelled in this road during its construction in 2005-06, the traffic density remains almost same in the past 15 years.

Crossed over pondicherry through ring road and reached RKN resort(2 km off Cuddalore road) @ 2pm. No stress drive except for a moron Tempo traveller scratching the front bumper at Electronic city Toll.

Stay in RKN resorts was comfortable. Beach was accessible and clean. Food was average but no complaints. Staff were courteous and helpful. Little less posh compared to Le-Pondy just adjacent, but nothing much to crib.

On return took the same route started at around 1.30pm and reached home at 9pm, with a 45minutes rest and evening snack break. Toll queues at Krishnagiri, Attibele and Electronic City were quite long.

[Cooltronics]

Originally Posted by ampere

But while return, you can opt for Old Madras option because you get saved from the inflow of returning cars.

Hi Ampere, continuing from the Mahabalipuram thread. While coming back from Pondicherry, I was considering via Arcot or Arni and touching the BLR - TIRUPATI highway as I stay near OMR @ Whitefield. Can you share some feedback on it and some guidance ? I am thinking about it to avoid EC traffic to whitefield.

Alternatively, I have 2 other roads in mind
1) Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Vellore - Arcot - Cheyyar - Vandavasi - Tindivanam - Puducherry

2) Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Bargur - Tirupattur - Singarapettai - Chengam - T V Malai - Gingee -Tindivanam - Puducherry

Also, my friend shared the NH77 work is going on so NOT to Byepass Chengam and Tirupattur but to enter via town

How about this route
Pondy - Thindivanam - Chetpet - Arani - Pallikonda - Gudiyattam - Palamaner - Mulbagal - Kolar - Hoskote - Bangalore ?

Does the forest section gets closed at some time at night ?
How are the roads in this part ?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Cooltronics

Hi Ampere, continuing from the Mahabalipuram thread. While coming back from Pondicherry, I was considering via Arcot or Arni and touching the BLR - TIRUPATI highway as I stay near OMR @ Whitefield. Can you share some feedback on it and some guidance ? I am thinking about it to avoid EC traffic to whitefield.

One option would be : Pondicherry-Tindivanam-Arcot-Gudiyattam-Palamaner-Hoskote-Bangalore

Or you can do the regular:
Pondicherry-Tindivanam-Arcot-Ranipet-Chitoor-Palamaner-Hoskote-Bangalore
This is 4-lane all the way from Arcot.

[srvm]

Originally Posted by Cooltronics

Hi Ampere, continuing from the Mahabalipuram thread. While coming back from Pondicherry, I was considering via Arcot or Arni and touching the BLR - TIRUPATI highway as I stay near OMR @ Whitefield. Can you share some feedback on it and some guidance ? I am thinking about it to avoid EC traffic to whitefield.
...
...
...

How about this route
Pondy - Thindivanam - Chetpet - Arani - Pallikonda - Gudiyattam - Palamaner - Mulbagal - Kolar - Hoskote - Bangalore ?

Does the forest section gets closed at some time at night ?
How are the roads in this part ?

Originally Posted by ampere

One option would be : Pondicherry-Tindivanam-Arcot-Gudiyattam-Palamaner-Hoskote-Bangalore

Or you can do teh regular:
Pondicherry-Tindivanam-Arcot-Ranipet-Chitoor-Palamaner-Hoskote-Bangalore
This is 4-lane all the way from Arcot.

Regarding Gudiyattam-Palamner stretch which includes a forest section. Roads get very narrow in some ghat/forest sections. Quite a desolate ghat road with minimal traffic even in day time. Strictly not recommended during night time. Road quality is reasonably ok. Watch out for 1 broken section of about 50 meters length about 10kms before Palamner.

Regarding Arcot-Ranipet-Chittoor section: Road widening, 4-laning going on between TN-AP border (Zion church) and Chitoor bypass. Painful 25kms where one has to tolerate uneven roads, dusty conditions, trucks to overtake etc. Again not advisable to this 25km stretch in night time. Roads are good on either side of this section.

[ksaurabh21]

I am driving to Puducherry this Sunday morning. Going though recent posts, this route (through Tirupattur->Chengam) seems to be better option.

While coming back, I am thinking of the Arcot->Ranipet->Chittor but not sure how bad is the road construction on this stretch? Should I stick to the Chengam->Tirupattur route while coming back?

[procrj]

Originally Posted by ksaurabh21

Arcot->Ranipet->Chittor

Check the Bangalore - Chennai and Bangalore - Tirupati thread. Roads are good all the way to Chittoor from BLR. If you stay in/near East Bangalore, makes absolute sense to take Chittoor route and then connect near Vellore or Ranipet to head towards Pondicherry.

[naveenvenkatesh]

Folks, driving to Pondi tomorrow from Malleswaram. Will start early, say around 6 ish. What is the best route to take? Will be driving my Abarth so good roads are paramount.

Also, how is the situation at toll booths with the new fasttag introduction? Saw rather long lines in Bangalore.

What are some good places to stop for

1. BF/Coffee/Tea/Bio breaks?
2. Lunch?

[NPV]

Has anyone taken the longer route via Bangalore-Salem-Ulundurpet to Pondicherry ? From Ulundurpet how does one get to Pondicherry - via Tindivanam and how much longer is this compared to the one via Arcot-Cheyyar-Vandavasi ? A friend was planning to take this route to maximise the distance on better/wider roads and also since he is familiar with this one as he has traveled to Kumbakonam earlier.

[mazda4life]

Originally Posted by naveenvenkatesh

Folks, driving to Pondi tomorrow from Malleswaram. Will start early, say around 6 ish.

Also, how is the situation at toll booths with the new fasttag introduction? Saw rather long lines in Bangalore.

What are some good places to stop for

1. BF/Coffee/Tea/Bio breaks?
2. Lunch?

Just returned from Pondy, would recommend to stick with the usual Blore-Krishnagiri-vellore - arcot - cheyyar- thindivanam- Pondy route. It’s the best IMO, eataries once you take the Arcot diversion is very less and better to finish all the pit stops before that. We went to Pichavaram and Chidambaram and also went to Bhuvanagiri near Chidambaram to visit the birth place of Sri Raghavendra Swamigalu. It was a pleasurable trip and awesome roads in TN

[paragpatankar]

Did Bangalore Pondy on 21st dec, and took the Google maps suggested straight route and the road is fine. There are a few broken patches between Krishnagiri- Chengam, but nothing too bad, if driving around 50 kmph. Took about 6 hours driving ( including almost 1 hour at the Attibele toll), plus 2 hours for Ramanashram and our favourite lunch stop at Dreaming Tree in TVM.

[vsathyap]

Just returned from a 3 day trip to Pondy and took the TBHP recommended BLR-Krishnagiri-Arcot-Cheyyar Bypass-Vandavasi bypass-Thindivanam-Puducherry route. Onward trip was pretty easy going. Started at 630 from BLR and reached Mission St. for Lunch at 2:30pm after 2 stops for Breakfast and later for Coffee/Bio Breaks. Arcot to Thindivanam roads are good - smooth tarmac most of the way but watch out for rural bikes and cycles merging into the highway without looking back/at the oncoming traffic.

There were massive jams and confusion at the toll booths with them separating Cash and Fastag vehicles. Cars were trying to cut across these Cash-Fastag lanes and this added to Chaos.

Same situation persisted on the return leg on the same route. Left Pondy at 4pm and got stuck in slow moving rural traffic from Thindivanam to Arcot, thanks to evening time and tons of folks on 2 wheelers not moving an inch! On joining the Arcot-BLR NH44/48, we were greeted with even more traffic and maniacal (read suicidal) drivers of some cars tailgating and zipping past at 120+kmph during night driving! Same chaos was present at the toll booths and we spent some 30 mins at the Attibele toll plaza due to jams. Reached home at midnight after a long and tiring drive!

Took us 8 long hours on each leg - more time was spent in long queues at toll plazas, queues to get a table during food stops and Bio Break queues for ladies restrooms!

Note to Self: Avoid traveling on major highways 10 days before the New Year!

[Srinivas]

Originally Posted by NPV

Has anyone taken the longer route via Bangalore-Salem-Ulundurpet to Pondicherry ? From Ulundurpet how does one get to Pondicherry - via Tindivanam and how much longer is this compared to the one via Arcot-Cheyyar-Vandavasi ? A friend was planning to take this route to maximise the distance on better/wider roads and also since he is familiar with this one as he has traveled to Kumbakonam earlier.

Just finished a trip to Pondicherry

Onward: via Salem, Ulundurpet, Villupuram
At Villupuram took SH332 to Pondi

Excellent roads - all toll roads till Villupuram, the last strecth to Pondi on SH332 is a two way road, but manageable

Distance is around 400km, but time taken including 3 stops for food and tea breaks (around 1.5hrs) 8 hours. Ride was a pleasure, but distance of aorund 80 - 100km excess with respect to the Vellore Tindivanam route

Return: Thought of exploring the Tindivanam, Gingee, Tiruvannamalai, Chengam, Krishnagiri route ( the direct route given by google maps - 274km apporx pondi-blr). It is a state highway all through though it says NH77, its two way and goes through all towns, traffic. Roads are decent till Chengam and then it is bad...we were in a Skoda Rapid (probably SUVs may be able to manage better) and we took 7 hours including a 1.5 hrs break in Tiruvannamalai (The dreaming tree)

We saved good time, but driving was a pain.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Srinivas

Return: Thought of exploring the Tindivanam, Gingee, Tiruvannamalai, Chengam, Krishnagiri route ( the direct route given by google maps - 274km apporx pondi-blr). It is a state highway all through though it says NH77, its two way and goes through all towns, traffic. Roads are decent till Chengam and then it is bad...we were in a Skoda Rapid.

You could have returned via Tindivanam-Vandavasi-Cheyyar-Arcot-Join NH 46-Krishnagiri-Join NH 44-Hosur-Bangalore. This is the default route most people have been taking the last 6-7 years since the Chengam route to Tiruvannamalai has not been good throughout, though parts have been resurfaced and even deteriorated since the last restoration!

My question was for a friend who was intent on taking the Ulundurpet route like you did and he also was driving a Skoda Rapid . With more breaks and slower driving, he took about 10 hours.

[adi_gt]

Just finished my trip to Pondy, Mahabalipuram. Started from East Bangalore at 8.10am (missed my morning alarm - later got to know of a problem with my phone). Took kolar-palamner-chittoor bypass-ranipet-cheyyar- tindivanam- pondi route. Checked at 2.15 in the hotel with 45 mins of break. All good roads except Chittoor bypass to Andhra- TN border. That section was also manageable because it's not worse than we see in BLR everyday. Took the ECR to Mahabalipuram from Pondy. Amazing road, really enjoyed the drive. Came back via Kanchipuram-Ranipet- Chittoor in 5.30 hours. It was almost empty roads from Chittoor to Hoskote in the afternoon today. So, as has been discussed earlier in this thread, anyone who is starting from north and east Bangalore to Chennai/Pondy, taking the OMR is not such a bad option. You save a lots of time on relatively uncrowded tolls as well.

[vsathyap]

Forgot to add this to my previous post - Mods, please merge if its appropriate. These are the eating/bio break options on the route we took.

Depending on what time you leave from BLR, your breakfast options could either be A2B at Krishnagiri, or the Sai Sangeet Restaurant before Vellore. Post this, you could stop for a quick coffee/tea/bio break at A2B Arcot (like we did). Dont follow Google maps for this Arcot A2B as it asks you to take a U turn at some wrong location. The restaurant is on the left side - on the service road and there is a convenient cut between the highway and the service road that allows you direct access to the hotel from the highway. We wasted 10 minutes trying what Google told us and later, common sense took over and on seeing how easy the access was, we all were

Once you take the Cheyyar Bypass -> Vandavasi Bypass -> Thindivanam Road, you will not have any good places to stop for tea/bio breaks.

However, I did see a 'Udupi Ruchi' hotel just at the corner where the Thindivanam bypass merges onto the 6 lane highway. There is a steep 2 laned bridge/flyover on this bypass and it drops you directly into the 6 lane highway. The Cafe is located at this exact corner and is easily accessible on the right once you get down the flyover / bridge ramp. The Gmaps link is here https://goo.gl/maps/ZjudvKdvb3AbLo4u7

Cheers!