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There are a few shops in the road opposite to Ambur railway station. If your lucky you will get something you like. Worth a shot if you are driving to chennai or Bangalore. Wouldn't recommend driving all the way to shop.

I have seen footwear and leather goods manufacturing companies in Ambur while commuting on the highway.

Apart from this in case you like visiting temples, then without fail visit PERIYA ANJANEYA temple in Ambur. The specialty of the temple is Lord Hanauman is seen stamping Shani Bhagwan which one would never find in other Hanuman temples.
I have visited the temple before. The ambiance is good and the temple is pretty big

Hanuman can afford to do that - for others Shani is rather too dangerous a deity to trifle with :) Thanks for reminding me of that temple - the one thing Ambur is famous for beyond Biryani and leather goods.

Drove to Madras on Monday morning (was a risk since it was verdict day, mine is a KA car) , but luck was on my side and had the most enjoyable drive in a while on an almost empty highway until Walajah toll.

Usually traffic thins out after the cut off from Krishnagiri, but it was scarce from Hosur itself and I was able to do good speeds without the need for slowing down often.
From Walajah toll, the roads were patched up till Chennai, but better than the last time I traveled on that road when it well like my tries were flat. I guess this is becase of the huge number of sand trucks travelling towards Chennai.

There is a new Star Biryani building I noticed in Ambur on the right side when heading towards Chennai, is this the original one? Looked like since it was a big restaurant.

On the way back on Tuesday , left Chennai around 2p and traffic till Sriperembudur was annoying and I was glad it was bad only one way. Cut off towards Chitoor and and roads were newly laid and traffic was less as well. There is a short section in which the roads were being re-laid., but apart from that , road conditions are perfect, except for two wheelers who ride at the edge of the road, but still dangerous since their speeds are slow and inevitably there is a crossing of a vehicle from the opposite side at the exact point .
Since the expressway has been extended further, the last 100 kms is a breeze and can be covered quite fast. There is a again a diversion since a flyover is not complete .

Toll costs via Krishnagiri- Rs 320, via Chitoor- Rs.165

Bangalore- Madras feels shorter than Bangalore -Mysore now .:thumbs up

Just did a Bangalore-Madras-Bangalore trip.

Left on Friday 15th May at 3 pm. Was bored with monotonous 4L/6L via Hosur Krishnagiri route & and have done umpteen times challenging to overtake 2L via Chittoor. So wanted to give try in the new route via V.Kota, Pernambat, Gudiyattam, Katpadi route.

So drove all the way till Mulbagal bypass and took a right turn towards V.Kota and then planned to drive towards Gudiyattam.

The road conditions between Mulbagal bypass till you reach a 'T' junction via Tayalur is not that good. However once you hit the 'T' junction and take left towards V.Kota the roads are excellent all the way till V.Kota. I think it may be a good to try out SH96 by immediately exiting after Kolar which goes towards V.Kota because the other sections were good.

Its bit of pain of to cross V.Kota town and once you cross it, the road is a single lane all the way till you hit TN border in SH234 via forests and ghat roads.

But since the road is deserted most of the time, its not a big problem.
All i can say is this is the "most" beautiful route we have to Madras as of today. Very Scenic, couple of good Hair pin bends and indeed an interesting route, but try it out as a leisure drive, if you have time. Once you hit Pernambat after crossing forest and Ghat roads, the roads are even very good all the way till Gudiyattam.

Unfortunately for some village festival, the entry towards Guidyattam was prohibited so i was asked to divert towards Madanur which joins NH.

https://goo.gl/maps/oXo4C

Overall i enjoyed the drive, though it was just 10 kms more compared to Chittoor route and reached Madras vadapalani at 9 pm ~ 6 hrs drive.

In return, today took the complete NH as i was bit tired and didn't want to drive in 2L.

Started at Vadapalani at 1 pm, reached Kanchipuram at 2 pm and was able to reach new A2B at Hosur at 4.30. Roads are simply awesome from Ranipet to Krishnagiri and was no traffic being a sunday afternoon. 3.5 hours from Vadapalani to Hosur was really a good time. Took a tea break but it started to rain very heavily. So waited for 45 minutes there, left Hosur A2B and 5.15 pm and reached C.V.Raman Nagar home at 6.15 pm after driving in heavy rains.

So those who are interested to drive with nature and looking for a change from usual options, can definitely try out V.Kota/Gudiyattam/Katpadi route. But don't forget to exit after Kolar - No need to drive upto Mulbagal or Palamaner :)

BTW, this option is not recommended for those driving with family and those driving after dark !

-Ravi

Could Chennai members please help:

Need to drive to Hotel Raintree in Anna Salai tomorrow evening.
I usually go into the city via Maduravoyal, but Google suggests otherwise to go to Anna Salai.

The fly over marked Poonamallee 'ahead' is the one I should take when driving in from Vellore? (with Poonamallee Telephone Exchange on the left)
How will the traffic be in these areas at around 5.30 pm?
Is there another alternative?

Route looks pretty straight forward from there on!
Thanks in advance!

Dont take the bypass, proceed straight to tambaram, its a straight road to Anna Salai. On the Guindy flyover, take the ramp that says Mount Road, Saidapet etc.

Stopped at Ambur when I drove down to Chennai last week. As mentioned here, lot of shoe/leather shops opposite the railway station just of the main highway. I was initially skeptical, but was surprised at the collection available and the rates. Of course not any branded stuff, but quality looked good. Picked up 2 formal, 1 casual and one sandal for myself. Total cost ~Rs 2500. Wifey also picked up some footwear and hand bags and was impressed .

I assume a lot of the stuff that comes to Bangalore/Chennai come from here.

I was, some years ago, on a plane with a german guy who worked for, shall we say, a very large and very famous shoe manufacturer. He mentioned that they buy all their processed cow hides from the Ambur / Vaniyambadi area.

You can skip Poonamalle and use the bypass road to join near Ramachandra Medical college. From there, it is a pretty straight forward route through Porur, guindy and saidapet.

Traffic would be on the higher side around 5.30 pm but it won't be like a complete standstill situation.

The Maduravoyal road is no better with lorry traffic till CMBT and the 100 feet road will definitely have traffic at that point of time. I guess you are better off taking the Anna salai option.

Going slightly OT: But this is an interesting piece of info. Some of the stuff there was stamped with some very famous European manufacturer brand names (Not seen available in India). Maybe they use the reference designs provided by these big guys to churn out copies?

That's now an authenticated information that'll help a bunch of us to please our better-halves!! Thanks for sharing!

Wont the leather industry need water? Whats the source here?

RainTree Anna Salai is the place I usually stay and I take this:

Poonamallee byepass-Maduravoyal-Koyembedu-Nelson Manickam Road-Valluvar Kottam-Gemini Flyover-Anna Salai

or this:
Poonamallee byepass-Porur-Kathipara Flyover-Anna Salai

Both routes are good, both might be totally free or slow at some points randomly with no specific pattern. However, chances of choking are less.

Let me know how it goes as I'm supposed to travel next week!

By the way what happened to the Arcot road fly-over work at Porur? Seems to have been abandoned?