[Masalawheelz]

Hello All!

I know this subject has been beaten to death here but I just wanted to know if there is any update on these routes. I am doing a Chennai-Mysore-Chennai on the 1st week of March (Starting from Thiruvanmiur) and wanted to know the following:

I read from above that the Manimangalam-Sriperambudur route roads are complete. However, I believe there's quite a bit of traffic on this road during the early morning hours due to the sheer number of vehicles heading to Sriperambudur.

Until Last year, due to the condition of the roads, I used to take the following route:

Thiruvanmiur - Vandalur - Padappai - turn a few km before Walajahbad and go through a few small villages to join on to the highway as Walajahbad - Sunguvarchatram appeared to be going backwards.

However, if I now leave between 5-5:30am, Is it better to take the following route:

Thiruvanmiur - 200 ft radial road - Mudichur - Manimangalam - Sriperambudur?

As i'm headed to Mysore, I'm anyway taking the Hosur Route - Nice Road and Mysore Road.

Any leads based on the current condition of roads would be helpful! Thanks a ton!

Cheers!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Masalawheelz

However, if I now leave between 5-5:30am, Is it better to take the following route:

Thiruvanmiur - 200 ft radial road - Mudichur - Manimangalam - Sriperambudur?

I dont know the status of the 4 lane work on Manimangalam. I would suggest you can also do : 200 ft road - Pallavaram - Pammal - Kundrathur Sriperumbudur.

The road till Kundrathur is twisty, but beyond the point where it goes below the Chennai bypass its a 4-lane till Sriperumbudur.

[mpksuhas]

Did Bangalore - Chennai - Bangalore a week back.

Started on a Thursday evening - 15 Feb, past office timing.
Started at 6.41 PM from near HSR layout, getting out of EC - Hosur traffic was pain as expected. Past that, it was slow but not painful.

The work in progress sections around Walajapet is now slightly better I feel compared to couple of months back. The completed sections are not more frequent. However, the in progress sections seems like they may take many more months to complete.

One issue is, in the widened but not marked /fully open sections - noticed mud / rubble being dumped next to the divider on the right most lane. If one is not careful in the night, it will be dangerous.


Reached Chennai around midnight. Near to Poonamalle, there were multiple police checks, they were not stopping all vehicles. Infact only couple of vehicles were stopped, but the barricades in zig zag manner kept across the road was causing delay in crossing the same.



Return was on Sunday - 18 Feb. Started at 2.00PM from Chennai, since it was a Sunday, crossing city was quick. Past Vellore, traffic was slowly increasing and then past Krishnagiri the usual Sunday video game traffic started.

Reached EC around 6.45 PM.

[Masalawheelz]

Took the highway on 14th March 2024 - left from Thiruvanmiur at about 5:30am - through OMR, Pallikaranai, Chromepet, Vandalur, Padappai, Oragadam, Sunguvarchatram and then on to the highway. Barring the connecting point at Sunguvarchatram town, the roads were good for the most part.

Between Sunguvarchatram - Ranipet while going from Chennai to Bangalore, there are not many diversions and the roads are largely in decent conditions. Surprisingly, the newer roads are filled with more potholes that the older ones.

Troublesome spots are just outside of Kanchi town (nearly non-existent roads) and Ambur town (flyover construction). The patch between ambur and krishnagiri is fantastic and is the best portion of the drive.

Just beyond Hosur, we got stuck in a massive traffic jam at around 11am which piled up for a few km due to road work and 6-7 lanes had to squeeze in to 2 lanes. This slowed us down by half an hour but I am amazed at the sheer amount of heavy vehicles using this road. When they did this project more than 15 years ago, we cribbed that 4 lanes weren't enough. They took 10 years to make it six-lane and it still just isn't enough as there are too many heavy vehicles happily overtaking each other on all 3 lanes.

On our return, on Sunday morning (17th March) there wasn't too much traffic, and we crossed electronic city by 8am. Roads were largely fine on the return journey and only gets worse around and after kanchipuram barring a few isloated stretches between ranipet-kanchi.

On the way back, I had the time to experiment and got in near Sipcot, went on the Kundrathur - Sriperambudur Road, Turned south on the Chennai Outer Ring Road, got out at Tambaram west, and connected to GST Road. Except for a small patch before joining the ORR, progress was quick and we reached home by 1pm.

Looking at the work of the roads near Sriperambudur, They were building walls on the outer lanes, signalling access control like an expressway. I hope this is the new bangalore expressway which is supposed to start at Sriperambudur.

Both ways, we stopped at Murugan Idli this time (Kaveripakkam and Krishnagiri) and we had quick efficient service despite quite a decent crowd.

Cheers!

[Tharle Subba]

Completed the Bangalore-Chennai-Bangalore circuit recently for a family function. The car was Nissan Micra and the occupants were my father, my wife and myself.

Started from home in RR Nagar at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday March 24. Took the NICE road and crossed Hosur by 4:30 a.m. Turned onto the Chennai leg of the highway at Krishnagiri by 5:10 a.m. The tarmac is decent till Vellore. Post Vellore, especially between Ambur and Kanchipuram, there are quite a few diversions. The most painful part about these diversions are the vehicles that approach us from the wrong side. Reached Sriperumbudur by 8 a.m. and the destination in Virugambakkam by 9 a.m. Took two breaks of 15 min each. Overall time taken door-to-door was 6 hours and distance covered 356 km.

Started the return leg by 2:30 p.m. on the same afternoon. Decided to take it easy on the way back with multiple stops since my father was severely unwell. The road from Virugambakkam till Krishnagiri was a breeze with barely any traffic. Reached Krishnagiri around 7 p.m. and met a sea of vehicles zipping past each other with blinding headlights blaring onto the tarmac. Reached Hosur by 8 p.m. and stopped for dinner. Reached home by 10 p.m. The time taken on the return leg was 7 and a half hours and distance covered 366 km (10 km extra due to a detour we took to look for a chemist near Krishnagiri)

Quick stats:

Overall distance covered - 722 km
Overall time (drive + breaks) - 14 and a half hours
Toll - INR 900
Mileage - Despite using the AC for major part of the journey and driving at speeds above 100 kmph, the Micra returned an economy of 18 kmpl, which I felt was great.

Happy driving!

[arun_josie]

Did Chennai - Bangalore this morning. Started at 5am from manapakkam and reached electronic city signal by 9am. Starting early helped big time as I was able to cross those diversions in quick time. There were around 20 diversions till arcot, 3 around ambur and another 3 till bangalore. The roads till Arcot are better than before.

Bangalore - Chennai(last week) took more than 5 hours.

[ravib]

Cross posting the Bangalore-Madras-Bangalore trip via Chittoor route.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route...ml#post5754714 (Bangalore, Chennai via Chittoor : Route Queries)

Just drove back from Madras to Bangalore 30 minutes ago !

Onward Journey
Left Bangalore on 10th Apr for an emergency - Started at 8 pm at C.V.Raman Nagar and Reached Maduravoyal at 1 am, which included 15 minutes tea break and about 20 minutes police check in atleast 4 places on the way. Drove all throughout between 90 to 110 kmph.

Road conditions are good all throughout about 98% of the places, barring the construction and deviations areas around Chittoor collectorate office, Ranipet and between Chennasamudram to Sriperumbudur.

Road conditions from Chennasamudram Toll to Sriperumbudur are 95% completed except the bridge and the surface is very good. Lanes are marked in many places, but not in many places too. Diversions are less towards inbound direction.

Sriperumbudur to Poonamalle is also roads are excellent. So overall able to cover the distance in 4.5 hours driving time in constant speed that makes up for good average kmph.

Return Journey.
Started today 16th Apr from Pallavaram at 6 am and reached Murugan Idli shop for breakfast break at 7.10 am. After an hour break, resumed driving and reached C.V.Raman Nagar at 12 noon, that makes up 5 hours drive plus 1 hour break.

Road conditions from Sriperumbudur to Kundrathur to Pammal to Pallavaram had deteriorated badly, so not a good drive.
Sriperumbudur to Chennasamuduram toll outbound direction has more diversions compared to madras inbound direction. The road conditions are also not that good as well, but not too bad either. Need to really slow down.

Other notable points
A) Overall drive from Bangalore to Madras via Chittoor route now has too many diversions.
A1) KA side => Before Hoskote toll bridge construction for whitefield road exit, Narasipura industrial estate bridge construction, Kolar to Mulbagal toll road widening work, Mulbagal bypass exit, Nangali junction.
A2) A.P side => The bridge joints that were patched earlier using tar has becoming little more bumpy now compared to when earlier due to heat, Tirupati bypass towards Chittoor collectorate, Chittoor collectorate to Chitoor CMC campus, road widening work before and after railway gate till Zion Hill church/TN border.
A3) After Chittoor Collectorate office till TN border, many places, the traffic is allowed in only one side toward TN, thus both ways people try to overtake thinking it is a 4L which is not, so need to be careful.
A4) The new roads that were laid just less than a year ago between Gudipala to Chittoor CMC campus to Chittoor collectorate office is now non-existent due to road widening work and active construction. So effectively the life of new roads were pretty short, which was infamous for its bad roads in the past.
A5) T.N side => Bridge construction at Ranipet fork towards the bridge/Little flower convent is mostly done, so no barricades. However, people can still get confused to exit Ranipet and join NH if they follow Google maps blindly. For the benefit of those traveling first time, while going towards madras after you cross the little flower convent which comes on to your right, take immediate left instead of going straight as suggested by Gmaps. Drive all the way till the T-junction, take right and drive through the bazaar road which is wide enough and a divided road till you see the huge bridge in NH. Take left in service road in the NH and join main carriage way.
A6) As mentioned earlier, there are not many diversions towards Madras, and drive is relatively smooth compared to last year.

Good News
1) Finally saw excellent brisk progress of construction work in AP side for road widening and also the bridge construction for new Bangalore-Chennai express way. Loop construction is also in progress near to Chittoor CMC campus, which is why road widening and construction work happening.
See attached fotos - with time stamp around 9:05 to 9:10 am are new expressway bridge. Time stamp around 9:20 pm are between Chittoor collectorate to Tirupati byepass.
2) After Hoskote, the new expressway roads are ready in KA side and traffic is allowed towards Devanahalli and STRR which is great. See attached fotos with time stamp around 11:20 am.

Hope this helps !

-Ravi

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by ravib

take immediate left instead of going straight as suggested by Gmaps.

You mean left at the water tank right?

I usually take this because I believe going straight results in a dead end/ one way and you cannot join back to the Krishnagiri trunk road, but recently when I took the left at water tank I saw a small truck going straight and I *think* I saw it again when I joined back to the road at the NH flyover junction. So was wondering whether they have opened it up now.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

You mean left at the water tank right?

I usually take this because I believe going straight results in a dead end/ one way and you cannot join back to the Krishnagiri trunk road, but recently when I took the left at water tank I saw a small truck going straight and I *think* I saw it again when I joined back to the road at the NH flyover junction. So was wondering whether they have opened it up now.

Yes anand. Going straight will lead to one way road and have to backtrack.

This is the link to follow - https://maps.app.goo.gl/JFNKwjcW8FCNoBBL7

-Ravi

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Did Chennai - Bangalore this morning. Started at 5am from manapakkam and reached electronic city signal by 9am. Starting early helped big time as I was able to cross those diversions in quick time. There were around 20 diversions till arcot, 3 around ambur and another 3 till bangalore. The roads till Arcot are better than before.

Same route took 7 hours yesterday. I couldn't time the drive properly and could start from Chennai by 3:45 PM only. The traffic at the diversions near Ambur, Krishnagiri and hosur were horrible. Also, there was a 2Km queue at the Krishnagiri T junction. Adding to this the crowd at the Krishnagiri toll and Attibele toll .

Overall, this ended as my slowest drive between Bangalore - Chennai.

The traffic towards Chennai looked bad as well. At 2-3 diversions I could see the queue extended to 1-2 Kms.

This was just before one of those diversions,