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Did a round trip to Hosur on 13 and 15 respectively. Took 5 hours exactly. Both directions were done at night.

• Onward was on long weekend Thursday and loads of truck traffic.
• Entered NH4 at Sunguvarchatram.
• Diversions are generally ok. You won't need to see an orthopedic.
• If you are patient and drive at slower speeds, its easy to get through.
• Completed sections do not have lane markings. Traffic movement can be best termed brownian.
• 2 bridges around Murugan Idli Kadai are done. The westbound outlet is right at the start of a bridge, so you need to be on the service lane to take it..
• Took me 2:20 hours to Chennasamudram.
• There are 3 more diversions after Chennasamudram. One at Vellore, one at Ambur and another near the Krishnagiri-Tiruvannamalai intersection.
• From Chennasamudram it took 2:40 hrs to Hosur.

• Return route has better progress than the onward. Lot more bridges seem to be open than the onward.
• Drive was mostly done at 80-85.
• Started at an unusual 545 pm from Hosur and the drive to Krishnagiri was filled with 1000s of 2-wheelers on all lanes.
• Things eased after Krishnagiri and there wasn't significant traffic all the way home.

Its a good alternative in daytime if you reside on the southern suburbs of the city. However its not an offbeat route. There is significant traffic between Tindivanam and Gingee and moderate till Tiruvannamalai. The actual free stretch is after Tiruvannamalai till half between Mathur and Krishnagiri.

April 2023: Chennai - Bangalore - Chennai

We did Chennai - Bangalore drive on 20th April with 2 kids.



10.40AM Start from Chennai/Near Vadapalani Metro Station - 1.40PM Lunch at Hotel TamilNadu (TTDC) Ranipet (7/10). Lots of open space for the kids to stretch / run around in safety. Decent, hot food and good service.

Finally Reached KR Puram around 6PM.

Took about 8 Hrs / Morning-Afternoon drive. Roads were decent. Traffic until Kanchipuram was frustrating. Smooth right from Ranipet - Chittoor-Hoskote with sparse traffic compared to what Vellore-Krishnagiri-Hosur route would have been.

Returned back the next day, Bangalore - Chennai.

4.00PM Start from HAL 2nd Stage / Indira Nagar - Couple of breaks/fueling, 20-30mins total, reached Ranipet/Arcot by 7.30PM. Good roads / less traffic. Could easily do 100Kmph in Cruise.

From here drove 1.30hrs to reach Dindigul Thalapakatti :thumbsdown (4/10) near Kanchipuram on NH by 9.15PM - avoid this Restaurant if you can. Poor service/ cold food/careless attitude.

1.30Hrs further drive with bad and blinding traffic / unlit roads / numerous diversions to service lanes and impatient drivers to reach Vadapalani by midnight.

Took the same 8 hrs / evening-night drive.

Pls note - Google Maps by default only showed Hosur/Krishnagiri route while starting from Indiranagar but we went against it.

Would highly recommend the Ranipet/Chittor/Kolar/Old Madras route until the road work gets completed.

Hope this helps.

I would like to ask how this Kolar Old Madras route is better than the Hosur route. Because the road works are happening only after Chennasamudram toll which you will have to cross regardless of whether you use the Hosur route or the Kolar route to go to Madras.

Hi,

My opinion,

I felt
1) the traffic was very much sparse in this route
2) the roads were much better
3) comparatively diversion free
4) comparatively intrusion less by villagers/locals
and
5) comparatively less signals/junctions

Took this route decision after going through several posts in this thread and the estimated travel time shown in Google maps for the Vellore-Krishnagiri-Hosur route compared to this one.

Hope this helps.

Did the Poonamallee - Sriperumbudhur stretch on Saturday as a part of a longer drive which took me around the western periphery of Chennai for a couple of hours. This stretch is now much much better compared to any time in the past year or so.

It is resurfaced? The Outer Ring Road to Bypass stretch from Poonamalee bypass to Maduravoyal has a fresh layer of tarmac minus the lane markings.

The stretch of around 7-10 kms from may be Saveeta to the Nemili toll has a very smooth road surface, bright lane markings and reflectors on all 3 lanes. I wish for the day when the entire stretch from Maduravoyal to Chennasamudram looks like that. Will shift to only night time drives for my Bangalore-Chennai runs.

I drove to Kanchipuram on Saturday morning, on the 22nd, took the route mentioned above, the was a very pleasant drive. On the way back, I missed turn after Gandhingar, it was not updated on Google Maps, so drove to Arumparuthi and joined the NH using country roads.

I drove Chennai - Bangalore, last Sunday. I counted at least 20 diversions(approx) till Krishnagiri. The road surface was good and I didn't face any traffic jam due to these diversions. It took me 6 hours(with two stops) from Pallikaranai to Bannerghatta Road (1:30PM - 7:30PM). From Pallikaranai, I took Vandalur - Oragadam and then took right @ Apollo plant.

Gents,

I am planning a trip from E-City, Bangalore to Grand Chennai GRT property, T. Nagar, Chennai. I am an almost-first timer on this route. Last trip to Kanchipuram was 4yrs back.

Would appreciate your insights on the route to take & stuff to avoid. The check-in, is in the afternoon and I will be driving out on a Sunday with the return back, post lunch on a Monday. So, will likely do a 6am or 7am start on Sunday (with bfast at Murugun idly) and a leisurely drive.
Also, appreciate any insights on how to kill time on Sunday evening :-). Will be traveling with the missus and 2 teenagers in tow.

Cheers
Kedar_GT

Route:
E City - Hosur- Krishnagiri- Vellore- Ranipet- Sri Perumbudur- left to do the Poonamallee Bypass- Porur-Adambakkam-Kathipara Junction Grade separator- Guindy- Saidapet- Mount Road / Anna Salai- and into T Nagar.

Use Google Baba.

Evening:
Go for a drive along the beautiful Marina Beach. See the landmarks and the sights and the lights and so on. All the way from Santhome to Parrys and back. Past the War Memorial, Madras Port, Fort St George and all those landmarks of old Madras.

Take a drive from T Nagar to Adyar and Besant Nagar all along Annie Besant’s Theosophical Society walls till Besant Nagar Beach and back. This is also worth seeing.

You can have a typical Madras early dinner at Sangeetha in R A Puram or Ratna Cafe in Adyar on the Besant Nagar road. Superb Dosas and all.

Ah - thanks a bunch, Shankar.


So basically you suggest the below route. Is it OK to do this in an out-of-state car on a Sunday evening? I was thinking of just parking the XUV and then using a cab or something to take in the sights. (Locally normally have less patience with tourist vehicles cruising by for taking in the sights)
Sorry for going OT over here.

Yes this is the route.
Madras is quite a welcoming and peaceful place so no problem with out of town vehicles etc. It is likely to be hot though being end April early May.
Yes, it makes better sense to rent a cab and get to see the sights yourself instead of trying to do the driving and the sight seeing at the same time.
For example I went to Hyderabad a couple of weeks ago and did just that. Parked at the hotel. Rented a cab for sight seeing. Saved myself the hassle of driving around, looking at the google maps all the time and hunting for parking and all that.

Shankar sir, were you watching or monitoring me 4 weeks back. lol: I just did that wonderful nostalgia drive from Madras High Court- Parrys building in Parrys corner, and drove all the way till Santhome /Adyar.

Its indeed great, but this time of the year, weather is quite hot and so its better you plan for sunset time to see the nice places in day light after 5 pm or so.

-Ravi

I would avoid Poonamalee bypass-Porur-Kathipara. Its a total mess with metro work.

For wider roads, I'd suggest taken Sriperumbudur-Oragadam-Vandalur-GST-Mount Road till Teynampet. GRT is 300 meters from Teynampet signal on Mount Road. If you enter town after 1100 till 1400 it is manageable. There is one bad diversion between Sunguvarchatram and Sriperumbudur, other diversions are manageable. The reason I am avoiding the Nandanam signal which google will suggest is because T. Nagar is now a maze of diversions due Metro work.

Pondy Bazaar is 5 minute walk, am pretty it will keep your missus entertained.

Keeping your car parked at GRT Grand Days and taking a cab is the best.

If you want a proper TN style ilai sapadu, I would suggest Maris for lunch. They have parking.