[narayans80]

Originally Posted by luvurride

Slightly , Chennai was horrible with the metro work in progress. It took me 2.5 hours from Porur to T.Nagar via Vadapalani on Saturday evening. On return, took the Anna Salai-kathipara-Porur on Monday evening and managed to do it in 1.5 hours. Decided and hired a cab for local commute, which definitely was worth the buck!

I am a T.Nagar local, and I never leave/enter at evenings. 'cos its plain suicide !! Going via Kathipara-Porur is by far the easiest and straightforward option. Metro is a mess only until Nandanam, after that it isn't that bad, atleast you don't get held that long like at Teynampet signal. Also there is a huge traffic jam for Nandanam signal coming from Teynampet signal. Other option is to take Cenotaph Road till Cancer Institute, take right and head towards Guindy.

From T.Nagar, it is better to get on South Usman Road and catch Mount Road from there.

[binand]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Also there is a huge traffic jam for Nandanam signal coming from Teynampet signal. Other option is to take Cenotaph Road till Cancer Institute, take right and head towards Guindy.

Not sure I understand these directions. You mean down Mount Road till Teynampet, turn left to Cenotaph Road and onwards to Turnbulls Road, and finally take right towards Guindy at the junction with SP Road in front of IITM (all, in lieu of continuing along Mount Road via Teynampet, Nandanam, Saidapet and Guindy)? Is the situation in Chennai so bad that the former is preferred to go from say, Thousand Lights to the Airport?

[pypkmsrikanth]

Depending on which part of Mount Road you are starting this suggestion might be of help. If you are starting anywhere close to Spencers / LIC the best option in my opinion is to take GP road, continue onto Royapettah, Luz Corner, from here take a right onto Luz Church Road, come to TTK Road, on your way to Park Sheraton, take a right at Park Sheraton to Chamiers Road and then reach Rajbhavan via Kotturpuram. I have given the google link from Express Avenue since it has not updated Mt. Road becoming one way and GP road directions having changed the other way.

Westcott Rd to Anna Salai/Sardar Patel Rd - Google Maps

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by binand

Not sure I understand these directions. You mean down Mount Road till Teynampet, turn left to Cenotaph Road and onwards to Turnbulls Road, and finally take right towards Guindy at the junction with SP Road in front of IITM (all, in lieu of continuing along Mount Road via Teynampet, Nandanam, Saidapet and Guindy)?

Yes, youv'e understood correctly and this is at peak office timings in morning and evening. Its a choc-a-bloc in Teynampet and Nandanam signal towards Saidapet. Infact for my return commute from OMR to T.Nagar, its far easier to take a left from Chamiers Road, U-turn at Buhari signal and enter Venkatanarayana Road than it is to do Cenotaph Road-Mount Road-Venkatanarayana Road.

Originally Posted by binand

Is the situation in Chennai so bad that the former is preferred to go from say, Thousand Lights to the Airport?

Things have improved in the Guindy and Ekkaduthangal parts of metro construction. Right now the mess is getting past Nandanam.

[binand]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

If you are starting anywhere close to Spencers / LIC the best option in my opinion is to take GP road, continue onto Royapettah, Luz Corner, from here take a right onto Luz Church Road, come to TTK Road, on your way to Park Sheraton, take a right at Park Sheraton to Chamiers Road and then reach Rajbhavan via Kotturpuram.

An improvement could be to turn into Cathedral Road and then hit TTK Road at the junction near Savera Hotel. I don't trust the RK Mutt Road to not lock up completely even at off-peak hours

[luvurride]

[quote=narayans80;2822735]I am a T.Nagar local, and I never leave/enter at evenings. 'cos its plain suicide !! Going via Kathipara-Porur is by far the easiest and straightforward option. /QUOTE]

I lived in T.Nagar for 5 years and left the city just when the Metro construction was about to start. I haven't visited Chennai since I left and I guess that was primarily the reason for my shock!

[binand]

Well, started from home (BLR) at 4:40 AM and reached home (MAS) at 11:30 AM. The drive via GQ was fine, though slower than usual. There are diversions galore, but it appeared to me 3-laning of east-bound carriageway has progressed quite a lot from Krishnagiri to Vellore. Another year, and we should see the full six lanes.

A burst tyre on a truck held me up for a while near Sriperumbudur; plus had a fuel break, breakfast break and a couple of chai/coffee breaks. Entered city via the regular Poonamallee-Porur-Guindy-OMR route. Porur is much better now, but Guindy is crawling traffic.

Some of the toll booths are approaching the status of NH4/MH toll booths; long queues and irritating waits. Pallikonda took me 20 minutes to cross.

[binand]

Returned yesterday. Started at about 7AM from Chennai and was home in Bangalore at around 12:45PM. Pretty decent drive with 6-laning complete for long stretches between Vellore and Vaniyambadi. Tried the Hosa Road/Sarjapur Road/ORR route to home rather than the BETL - the odo showed a good 8 km lesser.

Seems to me more lanes are needed between Chennai-Sriperumbudur where no semblance of widening work is seen.

Appeal to NHAI: Please do not open up sections where lane markings are not in place. Several drivers don't know how to keep a vehicle going in a trajectory that follows the contours of the road. Even if they straddle the lanes or cut across them with impunity, it is still better for the health of others than them doing a sinusoidal pattern (as I see on the unadorned stretches).

Mods: back to back posts are about 10 days apart. Apologies.

[CBlazer]

Plan to drive to Chennai tomorrow. Will leave Bangalore in the afternoon. I normally used to enter Chennai through Porur - this was pretty easy since my in laws stayed in Porur.

This time I need to go to Ayanavaram. Could someone suggest the best route to take? I wouldn't mind taking a slightly longer route if it is less congested.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by CBlazer

This time I need to go to Ayanavaram. Could someone suggest the best route to take? I wouldn't mind taking a slightly longer route if it is less congested.

Only thing I can think off is to continue on the NH4 (Ponamallee High Road) all the way almost till Chetpet.
And get off at the Anna Arch Road.

Route Link

Would leave it for Chennai residents to comment. Dont know why Google does not route through Anna Arch Road. I think that should be the fastest.

EDIT:

Another option would be to go via Kilpauk and go around Institute of Mental Health. Dont know which one has lesser traffic.

Via Kilpauk

[ravib]

Originally Posted by ampere

Only thing I can think off is to continue on the NH4 (Ponamallee High Road) all the way almost till Chetpet.
And get off at the Anna Arch Road.

Route Link

Would leave it for Chennai residents to comment. Dont know why Google does not route through Anna Arch Road. I think that should be the fastest.

EDIT:

Another option would be to go via Kilpauk and go around Institute of Mental Health. Dont know which one has lesser traffic.

Via Kilpauk

Reach till Koyambedu circle and go further straight towards Anna Nagar Arch, take left and proceed towards Ayanavaram.

Don't go till Kilpauk, because there is hectic traffic due to Metro constructions. Driving in chennai roads now due to metro construction is really a challenging thing.

-Ravi

[narayans80]

Best way is to take a left at Koyambedu junction, go right through Tirumangalam. At Padi junction (elevated 4-way junction, so you got to take the bridge here), take right towards Villivakkam and continue on MTH Road and find your way to Ayanavaram. Poondamalee High Road past Koyambedu junction and esp past Skywalk mall are best avoided. There is metro construction happening on 3rd Avenue (the road through Anna Arch) and diversions near Shanti Colony, that's why am avoiding them.

[CBlazer]

Thanks for the help, everyone.

We left Bangalore on Friday, around 3.40 pm. Reached Ayanavarm around 10.30, including a 20 minute break at Kamat. I went via Poonamalee, Koyembedu junction, took the flyover to Padi, then Ayanavarm. Being late in the night I didn't have much of a traffic to contend with in the city. The stretch from Sriperumbudur is bad - both the road surface and the truck traffic. I wonder why the tolls have increased if they aren't maintaining the roads well. I didn't find potholes, just that the surface has become very uneven probably due to the heavy truck traffic (and numerous engineering college buses too, I guess).

I left Chennai around 4.25 pm yesterday and reached home around 11.30, including a 30 minute break at Kamat. Sunday traffic in Chennai was peaceful. But I lost time on the highway due to slow moving trucks and toll booths - two of them were a pain with people jumping queues. Can't be a coincidence that these are the ones closest to Bangalore - Krishnagiri and Attibele. We had to wait almost 20 minutes in the former. Trucks were a big bottle neck after Krishnagiri.

I must commend NHAI, for ensuring the road diversions are well marked along the highway. (I did much of my driving in the night and the diversions were quite easy to negotiate).

[binand]

Originally Posted by CBlazer

I didn't find potholes, just that the surface has become very uneven probably due to the heavy truck traffic (and numerous engineering college buses too, I guess).

I was thinking this is due to the extreme heat conditions prevalent during the summer months, causing whatever material they use to surface the road to melt and accumulate in lumps along the road.

[CBlazer]

Originally Posted by binand

I was thinking this is due to the extreme heat conditions prevalent during the summer months, causing whatever material they use to surface the road to melt and accumulate in lumps along the road.

Heat might be a factor, but you might have noticed the bumps are present in only a few stretches. Heavy trucks are known to cause such damage.

Also wanted to add to my post that I filled up at the Shell petrol pump (located on the left side of the road) in Padi on my way back . Shell prices are on par with PSU pumps in Chennai.