[hserus]

Originally Posted by Waxeloquent

FastTag, does its position in the windshield make a difference in recognition speed? If yes, which position - driver side, co-passenger side, Right/left/center, top/middle or bottom? I have been having this for 2+ years now, just below central rear view mirror inside. Should one replace with a new Tag if there is no visible damage to it?

Just behind the rear view mirror is fine - most tags should read it. If necessary angle your car a bit to the left in the fastag lane because many tollgates have only one reader, and that is mounted to the left.

For my car, as there is a sensor for lights / wipers just behind the rear view mirror, I have placed the tag behind my mirror but to the left of the sensors.

Works fine that way.

[gurupalani]

Originally Posted by narayans80

What's bad is the numerous barricades that have popped up.

Originally Posted by ravib

Yes, there are way too many barricades especially in Vellore district.
-Ravi

Several barricades are still there - some of them dangerously placed immediately after a turn. I had to brake hard at least a couple of times.

Also, many of the drivers are not maintaining their lane while taking the turn - even when they are going slow (60-80 kmph). Don't know if it's their inability or ignorance.

[mpksuhas]

Did a partly unplanned Bangalore - Chennai - Bangalore trip over the weekend. Unplanned in the sense, I was thinking of postponing the trip to some other weekend to avoid long weekend crowd.

However, had to go ahead with the trip on the weekend. Hence decided the start date & time to avoid peak rush.

Bangalore - Chennai - 29 Sep

To avoid rush, had planned to start from Bangalore late in afternoon. However, due to some other work it got delayed and was 08:30 PM when I was able to start from Sarjapur road. Took Sarjapur road - Bagalur - Hosur road to avoid traffic.

Got stuck near Hosa road junction and reaching Sarjapur itself took more than half hour. Also, till Sarjapur due to road work roads are in bad conditions. Unless you are travelling on long weekends like this, better to take Electronics city - Attibelle - Hosur road till Sarjapur road work is done. Also, past Sarjapur few speed humps have come up till you cross KA border.

On reaching Hosur, there was moderate traffic till we stopped at newly opened Saravana Bhavan along the old Saravana Bhavan (both these are not part of the restaurant chain with same name). Stopped here for half hour for dinner.

Service was fast but waiters seemed confused with mixing up orders at multiple tables. Saw a notice that they also have a Fastag counter there. Location

At Krishnagiri toll there was a long line of vehicles, however thankfully Fastag lane was kept cleared and was able to pass through without any issues quickly.


Around Vellore, it was raining heavily and there was water logging at many places on road. However, thanks to less traffic was able to cover the distance soon.

The annoying barricades has graffiti with radium stickers, hence able to notice in the night.

At
Also, roads from Walajpet onwards are in better shape now than earlier. Though the 6 laning work seems to have stopped ages back. Reached home at Vadapalani by 01:40 AM.

Fastag lanes:

Apart from Chennasamudram & Sriperumbdur toll, all toll booths had dedicated lanes for Fastag. Chennasamudram was the worst with a long line of Fastag vehicles waiting while the toll attendant was fighting with a non fastag guy for some cash transaction. I got the video of that and is planning of complaining the same to NHAI.



Chennai - Bangalore - 02 Oct

Started from Vadapalani by 11:15 AM to avoid traffic, getting out of town took sometime thanks to bad shape of Chennai NH bye-pass.

Once on highway things were fine, didn't stop anywhere and reached Krishagiri toll by 02:30 PM. Traffic was building up and had a tough time to navigate through the lanes to Fastag lane which was dedicated for Fastag, took some 10 mins to cross the tool. Easily saved some 15 ~ 20 mins due to fastag at this toll. Decided against taking Attibele toll to avoid rush, took Hosur - Bagalur - Sarjapur road and reached home at 04:15 PM.

The barricades were a pain on way back since traffic was getting piled up and people cutting across lanes to avoid them.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

On reaching Hosur, there was moderate traffic till we stopped at newly opened Saravana Bhavan along the old Saravana Bhavan (both these are not part of the restaurant chain with same name).

The new one seems to be the original HSB from the outside, the boards and logo seems close to the original chain. The other one is Saravana Classic which is not connected to HSB.
--
Agree with Fastag lanes in Chennasamudram and Nemili. However I saw another lane with ETC automatic lane in Chennasamudram, I think Nemili as well. These lanes were not marked Fastag. It detected at Chennasamudram when I went 2 weekends back without any effort. Last week, it took some reverse-forward jugglery to get the tag detected

Krishnagiri is easy to miss. I wasn't sure both ways which lane I was. First attempt got it correctly, second attempt was in lane 5.

[venkatesan]

Need help on Bangalore - Chennai route condition. Hearing a lot of rain and water in rivers now from TV channels.

[arun_josie]

During my return from Chennai today, I was planning to take the route via Vandalur - Tambaram/Mudichur/Oragadam road and then take a right towards Manimangalam-Sriperumbudur. But I missed the right and continued beyond that right return. By the time I realized, it was too far to return. So, we decided to depend on GPS which showed a different route to join the bangalore highway. It was via Sethupet, Varanavasi, Oddanthangal, Walajabad-Uthukadu Rd and joins the highway 30 Kms from Sriperumbudur(towards bangalore).

Its 4L till Walajabad-Uthukadu Rd and then its narrow 2L. This 2L stretch(around 12-13 Kms) was a scenic route, no traffic, 3-4 Kms were little bad. Overall this route takes almost the same time as the route via Sriperumbudur . So, if the highway is traffic heavy then this can be a good alternate route. But very remote area and not advisable to take this route after dark.

[im_srini]

Hello folks, any updates on the stretch from Chennai to the Walaja toll ?

Is it still in the poor condition it was last year ?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by im_srini

Hello folks, any updates on the stretch from Chennai to the Walaja toll ?

The section toward Bangalore I think is much better than the one toward Chennai. But nowhere close to what a 4-lane should be.

[im_srini]

Originally Posted by ampere

The section toward Bangalore I think is much better than the one toward Chennai.
But nowhere close to what a 4-lane should be.

Thanks

There was news a while back about that stretch of toll-road being taken away from Essel-Toll-Ways & being handed over to another entity for re-layering.

I also remember the last time I was on that stretch, about 2 years ago, that parts of the stretch were being widened from 2-lanes to 4.

I was wondering if there had been any progress in these initiatives, I guess there's been none

[ampere]

Originally Posted by im_srini

I also remember the last time I was on that stretch, about 2 years ago, that parts of the stretch were being widened from 2-lanes to 4.

I did not get the quoted part. Its already a 4-laned road. But just that its too rough and badly patched. This section was pretty bad and the roads have caved in at many places.

Also the beautiful 6-lane road ends at Walaja when coming from Krishnagiri and its a shock to see the nice cruising 6-lane suddenly getting mutated to a badly managed and crowded 4-lane. The trucks start taking over control of one lane. This I think may be because of the truck traffic coming in from Chitoor side. I think its this truck traffic (along with the badly implemented roads) which has to lead to state these roads are in today.

Add to it the mayhem caused by local traffic which progressively keeps increasing as you go past Kanchi, Sriperumbudur etc. Not to mention the sand trucks from Arcot and inter-town buses. It almost feels like Bangalore-Mysore or Pune-Nagar. Though you drive on a 4-lane you never get the feeling you are out of town!

When heading back from Chennai, my first target is to always go past Walaja toll. Thats when I relax a bit and know, I can now cruise with peace!

[hamster]

Originally Posted by im_srini

Thanks

There was news a while back about that stretch of toll-road being taken away from Essel-Toll-Ways & being handed over to another entity for re-layering.

Well, Essel Toll Ways abandoned the project and its NHAI who was maintaining the stretch AFAIK. Don't remember seeing any information handover to new entity.

Originally Posted by im_srini

I was wondering if there had been any progress in these initiatives, I guess there's been none

The last time I had been through that the roads were ear-marked for widening from 4 to 6 lane, there has been no progress after that.
I have been avoiding most of the stretch from Chennai till Kancheepuram and will be joining the highway at the first exit to Kancheepuram while coming from Bangalore. It helps me avoid the toll at Nemili and also the jam post the toll till Poonamallee. It also helps me, since my destination in Chennai is near Pallavaram.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by im_srini

Hello folks, any updates on the stretch from Chennai to the Walaja toll ?

Originally Posted by ampere

The section toward Bangalore I think is much better than the one toward Chennai.

Its the opposite. The re-layering is done on many sections in the Madras bound direction, on the Bangalore bound direction its slower. Except for Kanchipuram bypass, the Walajah-Sriperumbudur is in much better shape.

Originally Posted by hamster

The last time I had been through that the roads were ear-marked for widening from 4 to 6 lane, there has been no progress after that.

It was still the same way, as of October 2017.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Its the opposite. The re-layering is done on many sections in the Madras bound direction, on the Bangalore bound direction its slower. Except for Kanchipuram bypass, the Walajah-Sriperumbudur is in much better shape.

If its the last 3-4 months I dont know. But else I always felt the return was far smoother (from Chennai). There were roughly re-done patches all over the place when driving towards Chennai.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Its the opposite. The re-layering is done on many sections in the Madras bound direction

Agreed. The 4-laned section from the Chennasamudram toll till Sriperumbudur is being relaid completely and the road is in much better shape now. There are no issues with the 6-laned sections from Chennasamudram toll till Krishangiri. They are in top shape.

[mpksuhas]

Earlier Chennai - Vellore used to be smoother, however many sections of Vellore- Chennai have been relaid. Also, thanks to rains sand trucks are less on this section now.

However, if you are driving at night be careful of few sections before Kanchipuram which has shoulder dug up due to 6 laning work.