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-   -   Bangalore - Chennai - Bangalore : Route Queries (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/22491-bangalore-chennai-bangalore-route-queries-309.html)

Hey all, I need to take a trip to Bangalore from Chennai on Saturday evening. I don't usually travel at night, but this time it's unavoidable. Which route would you guys suggest? Chittoor route takes me a lot closer to my destination.

Some sections of the Krishnagiri route have those awful potholes that cause me problems even during the day, they'll be even harder to spot at night. It sounds like there may be traffic concerns on the Krishnagiri route, and Krishnagiri is also an extra 40-50km going through city traffic.

Every night bus I've taken from Bangalore to Chennai has gone through Chittoor, so I feel there may be bus traffic there at that time (not sure). I've also never driven the Chittoor route AFAIK, so will the roads be in decent-ish condition for night travel?

You can take Chittoor route and road conditions are not a problem. Look up to Bangalore to Chennai via Chittoor thread for more recent updates BHPians updated.

There won't be many buses in Chittoor route in night.
Since you are traveling in night, better take Vellore-Katpadi-Chittoor route than the Bommasamudram railway gate which can get jammed in the night.

-Ravi

These days there seems to a lot of jams on the Hosur-Bangalore-Hosur section. I myself have gotten stuck on a few on them.

They dont seem like one-off incidents. Not sure how they need to be solved. But this seems like a serious item that needs to be addressed.

• One for sure is the NH844 exit/start point at Neralur where they may be many trucks coming in through service road.
• Not to mention the odd accident which creates a ripple effect.
• Last but not least being too many entry points between Attibele to Electronic City. This makes the 6-lane a city road.

Tomorrow morning i will be driving from bangalore to Chennai. I have tried all routes as showng in my image. Do not try the expressway. Its incomplete and you will be on a road to no where. I wanted to know if the road between Chittor to Ranipet is done. There is railway crosswing with big traffic rams and some road does not exist. Its route 1. Which route you guys suggest. I am experimenting every month new route and there is no road inbetween near vellor.

Route 1: Hoskote - kolar - mubagal - palamaner - chittor -Nangamangalam- Marakalakuppam - Ranipet - Sriperumbudur (fastest route if the railway corssing at Nangamangalam if ok)

Route 2 - Hoskote - kolar - mubagal - palamaner - chittor -Katpadi - Vellore - Ranipet - Sriperumbudur ( traffice at Katpadi and vellore)

Route 3 - Hoskote - kolar - mubagal - palamaner - Gudiyatham- Vellore - Ranipet - Sriperumbudur ( worst road. traffice at Gudiyatham. Then lonely ghat with no one. Very dangarous)

Route 4 - Hosur - krishnagari - Vaniyambadi- Vellore - Ranipet - Sriperumbudur ( traffice at Vaniyambadi)

As usual I took the Krishnagiri route yesterday, surprisingly there was no traffic (it was just slow moving) at any of the diversions till Chennai. Started at 2:00 PM and reached Pallikaranai by 8:00 PM which included a 45min break.

Drove from Bangalore to Madras on 30th Apr via Krishnagiri -Vaniyambadi - Ambur-Vellore route.

I don't recollect when i took this route last as its been couple of years easily , as i am regular via Chittoor route more than Krishnagiri route.

Left Sarjapur around 11.30 am and reached Pallavaram at 7 pm including 30 minutes lunch break at Arcot A2B. So that makes about 7.30 hours drive plus add another 30 minutes or to an hour extra if you leave from other parts of Bangalore like in North/East or around CBD area !

These are my personal observations and of course it may not go well with others' view point. Sorry about that!

1) Enough discussed about construction diversions between Hosur to Krishnagiri toll. They are indeed an irritation and pain when traffic is more, but manageable if lucky to escape.

2) Once we take left towards Madras, the roads are newly laid and pretty good. But only for limited kms between Bargur to Jolarpet, there are lane markings. Rest all the way till almost Vellore, there are no lane markings!

3) This is only making driving more difficult as people just don't know which lane they drive and there is madness in day time itself.

4) Night time driving is going to be even more difficult without lane markings and more dangerous too.

5) There are enough diversions even in this route too and i honestly felt some are really unnecessary as they were building bridges when there are no major crossings / towns or even villages. There were just paddy fields in both sides of the road, but still bridges were constructed. Its true even for some of the bridges between Chennasamudram to Sriperumbudur section. God knows why they are building those. (You can read between the lines for real meaning ;) )

6) New flyover bridge in Ambur town helps to avoid traffic signal for sure, but the bridge is quite bumpy drive. I recollected the infamous AP bridges in NH4 in chittoor route or the bumpy horse ride type experience in Krishnagiri bridge when coming from Dharmapuri road to Krishnagiri toll intersecting Chennai road underneath.

7) The right curve landing at the end of Ambur flyover is going to be risky and dangerous IMO, especially in the night because when there is less traffic, many will be doing very high speeds in triple digits and can easily crash or lose balance unless they reduce speed.

8) Generally, since the driving speed is above 100 to 120 kmph in most part of the road between Krishnagiri to Vellore, and many doing mad and very dangerous speeds due to empty roads along with frequent/sudden braking, the average FE definitely drops.

Thus personally i was not very happy with overall driving experience via Krishnagiri-Vaniyambadi-Vellore route after long time, except for smooth roads. Of course it may sound like i am biased towards Chittoor route, but yea so be it ,rl: because thats more controlled average speed with good FE and lesser pain even in bridge diversions than this route.

On a side note, cross posting the link for other update via Chittoor route.
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ml#post5966097

-Ravi

Based on my recent experiences, the best route during the day is the Madanur - Gudiyattam - V Kota - NE7 - Hoskote and vice versa.
And
The best route during the night is the regular Ambur - Krishnagiri route and vice versa.

People travelling from/to around Electronic City will be forced to take the Krishnagiri-Ambur route although a painful one till the completion of major bridge works.

Did Chennai-OMR- Ranipet Bangarupalem (the recently discussed notorious road work stretch)-Chittoor towards Madanapalle on Apr 29. Reached Ranipet around 730 am after a 445am start from Sholinganallur.

The Sholinganallur Medavakkam stretch is to be avoided anytime of the day due to Metro work and intermittent one-way regulation. Took about 40 mins to cross the Tambaram flyover towards Mudichur.

The good part - The Bommasamudram roadworks had free flow of traffic; no oncoming vehicles towards Ranipet. Had breakfast at Nandi Food Plaza around 815 am and proceeded towards Madanapalle.

After visiting Puttaparthi, Mantralaya, Hospet and finally Bangalore JP Nagar, started from JP Nagar 7th Phase at 445 am on 3 May. Google Maps showed flooded roads on Bommasandra/ Road closures in NH48.

It took me through RV college road, Residency Road, Old Madras Road and into the NE7 new expressway. Great stretch, hardly any users yet. Could spot some interesting birds on the road. Exited via the Hoskote untolled exit.
Entered NH75 Venkatagirikota, the small ghats, Pernambut Gudiyatham, and entered NH48 at Pallikonda ~ 8am.

The Ghats were okay to pass at 7am, even Gudiyatham had free flowing movement.

There is a Murugan Idly building-top notification board between Ranipet and Kanchipuram- adjacent to a Jio fuel pump. Please note that this Murugan idly is now closed. We stopped for breakfast at Ramana Inn further towards Kanchipuram. The food and parking are good, but the restrooms are to be avoided

Oh, thanks for this information. I have used this place many times to charge my EV at the Jio pump (60KW charger, usually empty) and have a bite at Murugan Idli. It was also a good place to stop during peak breakfast or lunch hours as most of the other decent food joints in the vicinity, including the Murugan Idli on the opposite side of the road are heavily crowded with waiting times.

For EV owners, there isn't a real working option of a charger now at a food joint between Chennasamudram and Sriperumbudur. Chargers are at petrol pumps, but not convenient even to get a coffee.

I drove down to Chennai yesterday. Due to some reason google maps was recommending the route via Tiruvannamalai - Tindivanam - Chennai. However the route via Ambur - Vellore - Arcot was normal and we didn't face any issues at all. First timers will have to careful as the google recommended route is longer by distance and takes another 1-2 hours

This comes up quite routinely. I guess it's because Google still assumes blockage on some of the sections where construction is on. Thats why it's extremely crucial that we dont blindly follow Google.

We all have this habit of using our phones as a GPS Device. We blindly put on our destination and start driving without noticing how Google is routing this for us. And it's too late by the time we realise we have taken the incorrect route (deemed correct by Google). It would be good if we have analyse the route once before we commence our journey.

If you are driving south Bangalore/Hosur to southern end of Madras/Chengalpattu/Mahabs. It is not off by that much, probably 30 mins thereabouts. In 2023, I took it 4 times and it used to take about 4.5-5 hrs from SRM to Hosur at steady 80-90s, this was when only Tiruvannamalai bypass alone used to exist. Now pretty much all bypasses are done.

I'll mostly do it once in June, will see the timings now :)

The route will lose its attraction if the 6-laning of Sriperumbudur-Walajah is complete.