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-   -   Bangalore - Chennai - Bangalore : Route Queries (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/22491-bangalore-chennai-bangalore-route-queries-50.html)

The Vellai gate railway level crossing [now under bridge] is common to both the routes.

Where exactly is this Nandi Plaza? Directions/landmarks? I need to convince the wife that it is better to take NH4 than GQ, so good eateries along the way is a must. We plan a between 4 and 5 AM departure from Bangalore. Everything I read about GQ (Hosur-Krishnagiri, Krishnagiri-Vellore, Vellore-Poonamallee are all mentioned as bad - so what is left?? :-) makes me want to avoid it.

You have the following places:

- Woodys at Kolar. Good place for a traditional BF
- CCD At Kolar and at Chitoor
- Nandi Plaza (About 25-30km from Palamaner). You should see it on the right side while driving toward Chennai

Nandi Plaza is what used to be the Reliance A1 Plaza at Bangarupalem, between Palamaner & Chittoor. It is on the right side as you come from Bangalore.

There is also Hotel Pavithra, APTDC property at Palamaner. If you do not mind going little further you have Hotel Pride & Hotel MGM just on the highway at Ranipet. If you plan to start at around 4 AM from Bangalore you could be in time for Breakfast at around Kanchipuram where you have Sakthi Ganapathy, Milestone near Sunguvar Chathiram etc.

Guys,

Have a bangalore (Jayanagar)- chennai (guindy) - bangalore trip on my i10 this week.

Onward is on the 12th and return on 18th. I've done this route before a couple of times but it's going to be different now coz we have our 3 month old son with us (Carseat, yes!).

We are planning on starting at 4ish and hoping to reach by 11ish. I'm writing this to seek inputs on the must-dos and don'ts and in particular the food/restaurant options considering we're going to start at 4 am.

Pour your thoughts folks.

If you are starting that early and taking the Krishnagiri route, would suggest carrying some light snacks for you and your young one to last you 3-4 hours, and stop for breakfast on reaching Vellore - You need to ask for the right exit in Vellore and Saravana Bhavan would be a nice option and at about the right time for a good breakfast.

Regards
Vijay

Binand: If you are planning a 4AM start you can think about GQ also. If you manage to start at 4AM, you can manage to reach outskirts of Chennai around 8/ 8:30 AM easily. Traffic will pick up by around 7:30- 8:00. However no matter which route you (OMR/ GQ) take final leg of journey pass through the same route, so that part will be constant.

I was able to do Domlur- Vadapalani in 5 hrs on a holiday with about 20 mins of break in my Alto taking GQ. Never crossed 90Km/hr entire trip. Had started around 5:30 AM from Domlur.

Would suggest you to be careful in Krishnagiri- Vellore route since 6 laning is ongoing. There are couple of deviations which are well marked, just keep an eye for that.

All said, Iam also planning of doing my next Chennai trip through OMR for a change. Also as per reviews in this thread traffic is bit less in that route.

If you were to start by 4AM you will reach well before 11Am in chennai for sure. Just be careful about the 6 lane work happening off the road shoulders and couple of deviations in Krishagiri-Vellore strech. Apart from that nothing that you should be worried about.

For food options, you have the A2B before krishnagiri in case you get delayed starting from Bangalore. If you start on time, it is either Saravana Bhavan or Hotel Aryaas at Vellore. Aryas is towards the left, when coming towards Chennai; you have to take the service lane and go to Aryaas. For saravana bhavan, you can enquire for the route after taking the service lane, since you have to take a small deviation into the town for saravana bhavan hotel.

regards
Siva

Hey great - mine's on the 12th too. Marathahalli-Kottivakkam for me. Look out for a TN-07 Civic with many Team-BHP stickers :-) My start would be closer to 5 than 4 though. Likely breakfast at Chola near Vaniyambadi.

The wife's not agreeing to OMR, so it will be the GQ route for me.

Cool, mine's a KA-01 i10 with a Baby onboard sticker :)

Any ideas on how Chola is, neat and clean ? the restrooms ?

Well, it is somewhat of a standard pit stop for us in the BLR-MAA direction (we usually reach there around 7:30, in time for an early breakfast - or in case of evening drives, around 8:00 in time for early dinner). The food is so-so, restaurant is clean, ample parking and the (mens') restrooms are fine for nature's calls of the first type. It is about 2km from Vaniyambadi toll booth, immediately after the rail overbridge that follows.

If you are too early for the place, then drive on a further 45-50 km to Deepam, which is about 1.5 km beyond the next toll booth at Pallikonda (on the other side of the road).

Chola: Google Maps
Deepam: Google Maps

Beyond that are the various restaurant options in Vellore town, and then there is a new one near Kanjeepuram (forgot its name now).

Now you also get the Arya Bhavan alongwith coffee day. However its further down.

Guys, regarding options for bio breaks, the toilets at tool booths are also ok. Since if you are starting from Bangalore early morning you would be reaching Deepam/ Chola by breakfast time. Inbetween that you can stop over at any toll both for bio break if needed.

Did Bangalore-Chennai this morning.

Started from home around 4:30 AM, out of city limits by 5. I don't take the BETL at such early hours, hence got to see that the deployment of barricades on ground-level Hosur Road is haphazard and dangerous.

Topped up at BP near Sulagiri (fuel price arbitraging ;-) and crossed Krishnagiri around 6:15-ish. Stopped for rest room/breakfast at Chola around 7. There was a jam near Pallikonda due to what looked to me like a fatal accident - a tow truck was removing a bus that had its entire front side smashed in. Progress slowed down a bit after Kanjeepuram, so we entered Poonamallee bypass only at 10 (on the dot) - 5.5 hours for about 340 km, with about an hour of breaks in between - certainly slower than what I have experienced in the past.

Yes, work on 6-laning is in progress at a lot of places. Between Sulagiri and Krishnagiri, there were a couple of places where our carriageway was reduced to one lane (smashing rocks to make space for the additional lane) which I imagine would be a major bottleneck during daytime. Several places on NH46 had diversions - what are they building? When I encountered the first one, I thought the idea was to build a grade-separated interchange between NH46 and NH66. But no - more likely underpasses for local traffic.

I thought the road quality between Krishnagiri and Pallikonda was fine - smooth and safe. Diversions are well-signposted and temporary dividers continuously in place. The nearer you get to Chennai, the worse it becomes (undulations, potholes, uneven tarring etc.). The lack of shoulder doesn't really bother me.

Ran into Steve_Austin at the Chola Sheraton ;-) He came in while we were about to exit. We exchanged quick hi-byes, but since my kids were getting a lot restless and the wife wanted to hit the road again to coax at least one of them back to sleep, couldn't have a detailed chat. Hopefully your breakfast was fine too, Steve.

Hey Binand!

Beat me on the update here :) It was nice meeting a fellow Bhp-ian incidentally. Nice coincidence. Yeah, we had a safe ride too and a good breakfast (read idly-vada-coffee) at Chola Sheraton ;)

Yeah, you have pretty much summed it all. Just my 2 paisas, We started at 5:15 reached chennai at 11:15,and the trip meter read 333 kms. Not bad i'd say considering we were traveling with a 3-month old baby.

Roads, seriously were way better a year back. Very disappointed with the patch-works and numerous undulations. Add to that the fact that i was driving a Hyundai (i10) need i say more. Happy to be home avoiding the crazy lorry drivers :Frustrati (who change lanes without any notice and for no reason whatsoever).

Cheers,
Steve