[prabhuferrari]

I had to go to Velachery from Bangalore on Wednesday. From Sriperumbudur I took the wrong side road for 100 meters, then right towards Kolathur - Manimangalam - Mudichur - Tambaram - Velachery. By that route Sriperumbudur to Tambaram is 21 kms but the roads are quite bad and average speed is 20 to 30 kmph. It took me more than an hour to reach Tambaram. Less time, yes. But painful too.

[prabhuferrari]

In return direction I came via Chennai-Sriperumbudur-Vellore-Pallikonda-Gudiyatham-Palamner-Mulbagal-Bangalore. This route is very good except for a small but manageable stretch between TN-Andhra border and Palamner. If you are in North Bangalore you can try this route as it is better than the Ranipet-Palamner stretch traffic wise and more choices for food(Vellore).

[narayans80]

Home - 445am
Pallikonda 710am (15 min break)
Shoolagiri 910am (30 min break)
Tumkur Road end of NICE 1110am
Mahalakshmipuram Layout 1245pm

Mahalakshmipuram Layout 815pm (got lost and lost and finally caught Tumkur Road at 915pm, Took Nelamanagala Elevated Tollway)
NICE entry from Tumkur Road - 940 pm
Hosur 1030 pm (15 mins stop for human courier work )
Shoolagiri CCD 1105 pm (40 min break)
Vellore 110am
5 min stop to get some caffiene somewhere past Ranipet
Home 340 am

- The early morning drive on the onward and the night drive on the return was beautiful. For the first time since i started driving, I was able to maintain the left lane for a long time (pretty much 90-95% of it). Life was at peace without slow moving bikes.
- Lorries gave way when you flash, couple of times i backed off.
- TNSTC's SETC's predicatably kept the right lane, some rare ones did keep left (which was surprising).
- Almost all cars were driven at very sane speeds and no 'in a hurry to die' ones. One of them was a green Octy driving at 80.
- Maintained 80-90 all through, with sprints of 100.
- Outer Ring Road on Koramangala-Sarjapur road and KR Puram to Yeshwantpur in stretches is a mess.
- It was good to see a connected NICE stretch around the Gottigere Lake. No need to travel on the narrow Sherwood school stretch !!
- Ambur has jaywalking even at an unearthly 1 am !! Rest all small towns were happily sleeping.
- Some parts of the undulated Sriperumbudur-Pennalur stretch has been levelled.
- All craters near Madhanur on left lane have been patched. One crater near Baluchettichathiram still remains, rest all patched. All shallow ones, but gotto be careful at high speeds.

[amitoj]

Any idea what is the state of 4 laning work on the Bangalore - Mulbagal stretch?

[SuperSlick]

Hi folks, I might have to do a Chennai-Bangalore-Chennai trip some time next week probably, although not sure if it would finalize. I did this trip last in August 2009 and since then have been trying to follow this thread for updates. I took the GQ while going to BLR and the return trip to Chennai was via the Old Madras Route (Road), which I quite liked then.

Looking forward for any updates on the 4-laning work on the OMR route please. Thanks!

[ampere]

Better to stick to GQ. Quite heavy traffic on the OMR. As long as you dont say near OMR, its not worth taking this option. GQ is better any day.

[SuperSlick]

Thanks for the update/suggestion Ampere. I agree GQ is better any day, but actually the place I need to visit is very close to Ulsoor Lake, which is again close to OMR. Last time when I took the GQ to enter BLR city, I got lost a couple of times Thanks to the many one-ways in BLR! Anyways, it's been long time since then and I will be better prepared this time around if I've got to take the GQ all the way.

[ampere]

If its Ulsoor, using OMR-NH4 is better. But beyond Mulbagal, the road is a 2L and trucks drive pretty hard on this stetch. From that point of view, GQ is hassle free.
The other thing I am not sure is the slush on BLR-Kolar because of the recent rains.Maybe others can update.

I do agree there are many one ways in BLR and folks from outside can get lost. But for that 30-40 minutes of city mayhem, do you want to rob yourself of the highway bliss?

I can suggest a simple solution for that.

One you hit E-City from NH7:

1. Take the elevated toll road from E-City.
2. Once you get down from the elevated road, take the next fly-over (silk-board flyover)
3. Then you will hit an underpass. Dont take the underpass. You need to take a right here
(Go to the left of the road, then take right across the underpass.
4. Once you take the right you are on the Inner ring road.
Just keep driving without any deviations till you hit a dead end (You will also see metro construction). (This would be about 7-10 km)
You have then reached OMR. From there drive down to your destination.

The inner ring will also see a a flyover (Old Airport road flyover) which you will need to take.

This I think much less of the a hassle.



Here is the route I mean:

National Highway 7 to 100 Ft Rd - Google Maps

[SuperSlick]

Thanks again Ampere. It's very helpful. I was just going through the Google maps and you have chalked out the exact plan, which I was thinking of taking in case I drove through NH 7. Just hope that driving through this route is as simple as it looks in the map

The Elevated toll road from E-city was undercontruction at that time and I remember driving through straight under this bridge for quite a distance and then getting lost at some point after Forum mall :P Looking back at the route I took to navigate after this point, I can only say that it was quite a ride and I enjoyed it.

[ampere]

If you take the route that I suggested, then you wont even go to the Forum mall.
Much before that, you hit the underpass (which was constructed recently)


Its just one straight road! (Inner ring road) But you will see many signals.

[Bangalorean]

I differ slightly on this. GQ is definitely a better route in the conventional sense, but the Chittoor-Kolar route is not bad either. It makes eminent sense if you have to go to Ulsoor. I have the latest update from yesterday/today - check my post here:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...hittoor-7.html

[ampere]

I somehow found driving on that road (Chitoor road/NH4) to be more strenuous as against NH46 which is much more peaceful. I found many private vehicles and trucks running all over on the 2L and also overtaking from all directions (This was on the Bangalore-Chitoor section.)

The other thing which I realized is that traffic on NH46 is much less compared NH7. So most part of the journey can be done in peace. (Except for Krishnagiri-Bangalore section where traffic suddenly increases).

Originally Posted by Bangalorean

GQ is definitely a better route in the conventional sense, but the Chittoor-Kolar route is not bad either.

Perhaps, I would try this route next time. It's very long time since I drove on this picturesque route, especially the Palamaner-Chittoor ghat section. It [NH4] is also shorter by about 20 km vis-a-vis NH 7/46/4. This was my preferred route up to, say, 2005.

[ampere]

The 2L part of NH4 from Palamaner-Chitoor is definitely good. Esp after enter AP, roads becomes even better. Mulabagal-Palamner was OK, with pot holes here and there.
Not sure what is the latest on that today.

[narayans80]

Bangalorean, Except for the speed breakers, other things does look encouraging about the Old Madras Road. Should do it sometime for nostalgia sake . Its been almost 20 years since we last drove through that route.

Actually Vellore-Krishnagiri section of NH46 isnt trafficky as you say. For Krishnagiri-Hosur no matter how many lanes you construct you still would have lorries outwitting each other at lightning speeds of 30 and 31 kmph