[NPV]

Update from a weekend Chennai trip:
Onward - started on Saturday at 5:15am and reached Poonamallee bypass around 10:15 and the destination in Mylapore by 11:15am, traffic was moving inside the city even on the Porur-Kathipara-Nandanam-Mandaveli stretch.

Most of the bad sections that existed even during my trip in Jan this year have now been resurfaced and good. Only the last few Km of the Bangalore-Chennai route are rough, all good in the Chennai-Bangalore direction.
There are about 6-7 places with the police barricades as make-do speed control mechanisms (even on the 6 laned wider sections!). These are downright dangerous accident spots. If one does not spot them at the right time, high chances of being rear-ended or even crashing into them. I wonder if there is some nexus between the cops and hotels/businesses whose ads adorn these barricades

A 100% record of rain on the Ambur stretch! On all 4 Chennai drives in the last 3-4 years, we have experienced rains near Ambur. On the return journey, it was torrential rain for about 10 minutes with absolutely no trace of rain either before or after that place!

Return - started from Cathedral road on Sunday around 11:45am, taking the Nungambakkam-Poonamallee high road route and reached Attibele around 5:15pm, barely managed to escape the rush at the toll plazas. Will update on the Fastag thread separately.

[Altocumulus]

Travelling tomorrow from Bangalore to Chennai for the weekend. Planning to take the Krishnagiri route leaving at 5-515 AM. Which is the best place to stop for breakfast on this route ?

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by Altocumulus

Travelling tomorrow from Bangalore to Chennai for the weekend. Planning to take the Krishnagiri route leaving at 5-515 AM. Which is the best place to stop for breakfast on this route ?

You have Sai Sangeet near Vaniyambadi. Or you can try A2B at Arcot, this normally takes 2.5hrs - 3hrs. There are few CCDs as well.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by Altocumulus

Travelling tomorrow from Bangalore to Chennai for the weekend. Planning to take the Krishnagiri route leaving at 5-515 AM. Which is the best place to stop for breakfast on this route ?

Sai Sangeet. http://www.saisangeet.in/

[Altocumulus]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

You have Sai Sangeet near Vaniyambadi. Or you can try A2B at Arcot, this normally takes 2.5hrs - 3hrs. There are few CCDs as well.

Originally Posted by hserus

Sai Sangeet. http://www.saisangeet.in/

Thanks a lot to both. I guess I have been to the A2B in Arcot enroute to Pondicherry. Will try the Sai Sangeet this time around.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by Altocumulus

Thanks a lot to both. I guess I have been to the A2B in Arcot enroute to Pondicherry. Will try the Sai Sangeet this time around.

It is miles ahead of A2B or other restaurants in terms of food quality and taste, ambience. eg: Food and coffee served in brass plates and vessels, a "navadhanyam koozhu" / kanji made with several mixed grains like ragi, bajra which is what I usually take, very light on the stomach compared to dosas, pongal etc (and very tasty, served with 3 varieties of pickle and onions).

It also has a gift shop attached where there are some quite good quality god photos, earthenware etc available for sale.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by Altocumulus

Travelling tomorrow from Bangalore to Chennai for the weekend. Planning to take the Krishnagiri route leaving at 5-515 AM. Which is the best place to stop for breakfast on this route ?

Between Krishnagiri and Vellore, the best place I would suggest is Sai Sangeet. Between Hosur and Krishnagiri, you have Kamat, A2B, Saravana Bhavan, Lakshmi Nivas or Vilas, Mc Donalds..

[Altocumulus]

Will take a stop at the Sai Sangeet only then. Thanks all for the suggestions

[hamster]

Did anybody notice the new set of "Vellore District Police" barricades starting from MelVisharam (between Ranipet and Vellore) all the way till about Vaniyambadi almost every 50Kms.
Definitely better than the humps in other states on a 4 lane highway..

On our recent trip from Chennai to Bangalore, took the Hosur-Bagalur-Sarjapur stretch and it turned out to be a wrong decision.
Just after entering KA border after Bagalur, new speed breakers have come up. Also the mammoth Speed Breakers inside Sarjapur and the very patchy stretch from Sarjapur onwards slowed us down very badly and took almost an hour to cross the stretch. Would not advice this stretch anymore to avoid the Attibele traffic.
On our return, instead took the EC flyover-Attibele.

There was also a recent mention in the news about the Ranipet to Chennai expansion is stalled since the builder has abandoned the project.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/59187609.cms

[ampere]

Originally Posted by hamster

Did anybody notice the new set of "Vellore District Police" barricades starting from MelVisharam (between Ranipet and Vellore) all the way till about Vaniyambadi almost every 50Kms.

Yes. Frustrating indeed! Cant expect such baricades on such 4-lane golden quadrilateral. In fact they need to moderate traffic coming into the 4-lanes!

I understand they are looking out for safety. But am not sure if this may be the right approach.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by ampere

Yes. Frustrating indeed! Cant expect such baricades on such 4-lane golden quadrilateral. In fact they need to moderate traffic coming into the 4-lanes!

I understand they are looking out for safety. But am not sure if this may be the right approach.

Absolutely frustrating.

Not to forget the miscellaneous traffic that starts building up right from here which gets irritating in case you enter or exit around peak hours.

And this is not just limited to this GQ. There are barricades even on the Krishnagiri Salem section, so much that the long trailer trucks have a tough time to wave through these as they are close pretty close for comfort (for these long trucks).

[binand]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

There are barricades even on the Krishnagiri Salem section

They are present even beyond Salem, towards Coimbatore at least. Till Perundurai I think.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by binand

They are present even beyond Salem, towards Coimbatore at least. Till Perundurai I think.

These are erected just before road crossings so it is better any day than someone roaring along at 150 and mowing down people or traffic crossing the road.

On the other hand most of these barriers have at least one damaged or wrecked car pulled to the side of the road after plowing into a steel barrier at high speed.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by hamster

Did anybody notice the new set of "Vellore District Police" barricades starting from MelVisharam (between Ranipet and Vellore) all the way till about Vaniyambadi almost every 50Kms.

Noticed it during my trip first week of June. See my earlier post on this page (#2716). These were painful and quite dangerous to say the least, even spotting them becomes difficult during the bright sunny afternoons, at night it's even more difficult
Not happy to hear about the (mis)-developments on the Hosur-Bagalur route

[binand]

Originally Posted by hserus

These are erected just before road crossings so it is better any day than someone roaring along at 150 and mowing down people or traffic crossing the road.

Well, the original remit for NHAI was to avoid having traffic crossing the road altogether I guess. By way of service roads, underpasses and overbridges. So these to me represent their failure to execute the job assigned to them.

Once you enter Kerala you have signals. From the TN/KL border till Edapalli junction of Kochi (a distance of about 150 km) there are probably 20 signals. Probably safer than the TN solution but nevertheless beating the purpose of the GQ and the NS corridor and suchlike.