[audioholic]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Remember if you climb the ghats below 28 min, you will be fined. By this you will have some breathing space before you stand in the queue for 3 PM darshan.

Is this fine actually being followed? I must admit both me and my dad have had a blast driving up the hills and we have been much early most of the times. On the most recent trip, I completed it in 22mins. But I was not fined even though the screen showed bloody red So I was of the opinion that the fine system was not in place.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Is this fine actually being followed? I must admit both me and my dad have had a blast driving up the hills and we have been much early most of the times. On the most recent trip, I completed it in 22mins. But I was not fined even though the screen showed bloody red So I was of the opinion that the fine system was not in place.

The last time I went to Tirupati, saw a number of vehicles one behind the other just before the checking point at the top of the hills. I guess that was being done to kill time so as to not pay fine.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Planning a Tirumala trip on a weekday very soon.

No idea about Chintamani route, but Chittoor route is fine.

Suggest you start early to beat city traffic and take ORR for Hebbal-KR Puram and onward. Even if you reach earlier, you can spend some more time at the hotel and relax. If you start your return around 6-7pm, you will reach KR Puram around 11pm-midnight, which should be good in terms of traffic (hopefully!).
You can take the Chittoor bypass - turn left near Coffee Day (right side)/Bans Hotel on left.

From Alipiri, where the hill road starts to Tirumala, it should take you about 45 minutes each way (there is a check on speeds based on your timing so be mindful).

Try to park your car closer to the Laddu complex so it is easy to reach when you come out of the temple after Darshan. See previous posts for details.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by NPV

No idea about Chintamani route, but Chittoor route is fine.

Suggest you start early to beat city traffic and take ORR for Hebbal-KR Puram and onward. Even if you reach earlier, you can spend some more time at the hotel and relax. If you start your return around 6-7pm, you will reach KR Puram around 11pm-midnight, which should be good in terms of traffic (hopefully!).
You can take the Chittoor bypass - turn left near Coffee Day (right side)/Bans Hotel on left.

From Alipiri, where the hill road starts to Tirumala, it should take you about 45 minutes each way (there is a check on speeds based on your timing so be mindful).

Try to park your car closer to the Laddu complex so it is easy to reach when you come out of the temple after Darshan. See previous posts for details.

Thank you srituri, suresh_gs & NPV. I will plan and leave early as well as take Chittoor route. One more question: are there any known speed check points on the Chittoor route? Should I slow down (specially) anywhere because of the same?

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Thank you srituri, suresh_gs & NPV. I will plan and leave early as well as take Chittoor route. One more question: are there any known speed check points on the Chittoor route? Should I slow down (specially) anywhere because of the same?

To the best of my knowledge , there are no speed check points but beware of barricades and speed breakers. Leave early and drive safe.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

One more question: are there any known speed check points on the Chittoor route? Should I slow down (specially) anywhere because of the same?

None that I know of, except the timing check on the Tirumala hills. I could be wrong though as I haven't traveled recently.

[sriturl]

Originally Posted by audioholic

But I was not fined even though the screen showed bloody red So I was of the opinion that the fine system was not in place.

Heard that commercial vehicles (yellow plates) they are very strict, and they may not get to use the ghat for 1 week apart from fine.
Other passenger vehicles, they may ignore first timers.

[audioholic]

So me and my family visited Tirumala last weekend since we had earlier booked an Arjitha Seva for my parents, me and my brother. While parents performed Kalyanotsava, me and my brother were not allowed to accompany them with another ticket and we ended up booking Brahmotsavam which was after theirs. While darshan was pretty neat on a Saturday, there was heavy rains which waterlogged the Tiruchanoor temple and we had to walk through the water to go inside the temple. However thanks to that, there was just no queue and we could walk freely into the temple and out. The 100 rupee entry ticket we had taken was of no use.

Onward we left on Friday in the evening and we returned Sunday evening. Though our darshan got over by Saturday afternoon, we did not want to hurriedly drive back home so stayed there for another night and returned on Sunday.

The route is more or less the same except that there are now barricades occupying half the road to slow down people and this is a really stupid and unsafe thing to do on a narrow national highway. Firstly, one should take the government to court for letting such a busy highway stay narrower than an average state highway elsewhere. Upon that, they put speedbreakers without markings and if thats not enough, now there are barricades. This is mainly put up by hotel and other commercial interests. Only one direction of vehicles can happen here and its purely a matter of ego and size to determine who passes first. The buses and trucks dont want to slow down, and the car drivers dont want to give up ego. I used to slow down, crawl in between the gaps left when trucks were passing and that did help to prevent myself from totally coming to a halt.

Thanks to upgraded lights on my SX4, they helped to cut down on high beam morons and spot humps and potholes well in advance. Also, being aggressive(not stupid) during overtakes will help you get ahead and gain a good pace. If not, one will get stuck in a cluster of trucks and cars who dont have a clue on how to overtake. Once I got ahead of a few clusters like these, it was an empty road all to myself.

Road from Bangalore till AP Border is top class but with two such barricades near Mulbagal town bypass but these are not so notorious since this is a wide road. From Chittoor town the road gets better once we take a diversion towards Tirupathi around 10kms from Chittoor. This road has a good shoulder space which can be used by trucks to let faster vehicles pass.

Originally Posted by sriturl

Heard that commercial vehicles (yellow plates) they are very strict, and they may not get to use the ghat for 1 week apart from fine.
Other passenger vehicles, they may ignore first timers.

I think this is true. The yellow board vehicles especially locals were pretty much sticking to the time and fast ones had stopped before toll on either sides. But while climbing the ghats, my dad was around 10mins early and while getting down, I drove and reached in 29 mins. At the check post, they advised me to be slower next time but did not talk further. I dont know how one can get down that road in a minimum time of 40 minutes. Not like I gunned the pedal down.

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Thank you srituri, suresh_gs & NPV. I will plan and leave early as well as take Chittoor route. One more question: are there any known speed check points on the Chittoor route? Should I slow down (specially) anywhere because of the same?

Please avoid night driving on this stretch if you dont have a good pair of lights and you dont prefer overtaking. The speed checks are in the form of trucks and buses which you will have to overtake. If you do have good lights and like experiencing the acceleration of your car, you will not be complaining but. However, judge your overtaking quite wisely and dont try to do tight passes. There could be other surprises on the road and you just dont have any space on the road as a backup. Not sure how good or bad it might be, but finish most of these overtakes when there are trucks slowed down near speed breakers and the opposite lane is empty. That will give you good space ahead.

[daretodream]

Sharing my experience of Bangalore-Tirupati Trip on 25-26 August
Car: 2012 Fiat Linea MJD Emotion
Passengers: 4 adults + 2 kids

Fastag Experience shared here

We had VIP break darshan and experience is shared here.

My route: The google map link.

As you can see, I completely avoided the standard Chittoor Byepass route.
I took the path less travelled. The path which goes through the countryside, flanked by mango orchards. The path in which you hardly get to see vehicles.

Reason for taking the route less travelled:
In April-2016, I'd enquired about route and got this response. Can not thank suresh_gs enough!
I had shared this experience after the trip.

Start: HSR Layout
Time: 1430 Hrs
Took the HSR-Marthahally-Tin Factory-KR Puram Hanging Bridge to exit the town.

Till Nangili Toll (120 Kms from HSR), it was a breeze with very less traffic in 4 lane highway.

Nangili to Bangarupalem - 2 laned highway- where you get stuck behind slow/large vehicles and then your driving skills are tested as you negotiate overtaking against oncoming traffic. So many things happening at same time- wait for straight road where you have clear visibility of oncoming traffic, anticipate speed of oncoming traffic and their intent to slow down, anticipate your own time to overtake the vehicle in front, decide if you need to rev-match and shift down the gear, flash headlight and then decide Go-NoGo. If Go, dash for the overtake - all of the decision to be done in micro seconds.

audioholic has explained quite well in previous post.

There was rain on both legs of journey and we did most of the journey in daylight.

While onward was not a stretch on me, I was very tired after return leg as got up 4AM for Darshan.

[itwasntme]

Did north Bangalore to Tirupati on 24 August via the usual KR Puram - Hoskote - Chittoor - Tirupati route. Special Entry darshan (SED) time was at 1500.

Outbound: North BLR to Tirupati: (5 hours)
Left at 0700 and navigated ORR, KR Puram bridge (massive rear shunt between 2 trucks on other side. Totally jammed for inbound commuters)
Reached our Tirupati hotel at 1300 (6 hours), with a total break time of 1 hour.
Superb roads till Nangili/Garrudu toll after which one needs to be very careful as overtaking slots are few and needs quick reactions along with correct gear selection.
FASTag worked brilliantly at all 3 tolls. SMS was received within a few minutes every time.

Tirupati to Tirumala;
Had a quick shower and change and reached Alipiri at ~1330. Town roads are typical small town melee but not overly rash.
Watch out for the Force and TT yellow boards and other private vehicles who might be late for their darshan, and driven rashly.
Checking at Alipiri was slow and thorough. Avoid carrying extra luggage/items if possible as it increases checking time. We had a hotel room so we left everything behind there.

Drove up in 30 minutes by driving sedately. No checking at the top though.
Distance was exactly 300 km from home to Tirumala.

SED:
Done in an excellent time of ~2 hours. Only issue was the stampede type situation when entering the temple gate and temple door itself. Had an excellent darshan and sat down to pray and feel the vibrations. Amazing feeling overall! Stepped out and had a quick snack of idli/dosa at the bus-stand stalls.

Inbound: Tirupati to north BLR (5 hours)
Drove down sedately in 36 minutes (4 minutes fast!) without comment from the toll staff.
Reach hotel at 1845. Quick shower / change and left again at 1915.
High beam madness and torrential rain started shortly afterwards - we had decided that we would chill and drive back, and I did not take any chances in rash overtakes etc.
Please budget ample time and patience for this stretch. Do not get impatient or distracted.
Reached home at north BLR at 0015 tired but happy.

Would I do it again?
Probably not as it does strain driver and passenger(s). We really did not have an option this time due to multiple showstoppers.
Next time, will plan to leave next day 0400 from Tirupati and reach back to BLR by ~0900.

Why the need for the hotel room for a day trip?
Have already been asked by multiple people (colleagues/friends) so preempting same. I sweat a lot and also cannot go to any puja/temple even if I use the washroom. So a shower was a must before the Lord's darshan. Similarly, I was quite tired once the joy of the darshan was over and could not have safely driven 5 hours in rain and darkness without a shower! Hence the investment of ~1.5k in the hotel.

Thank you for everyone who gave me excellent advice :-)

[srvm]

Thank you BHpians @audioholic, @daretodream and @itwasntme for recent updates on this route.

I had to go to Chennai over the weekend for some urgent personal work and I took Bangalore-Kolar-Palamner-Chitoor-Chennai route for both onward and return journeys. I'm familiar with this route since I have done this multiple times in the last year.

Onward journey was on Saturday 26th August and return was on Sunday the 27th. Some new developments on this route which were not there on my onward journey on Saturday but was found on Sunday.

They have put new speed breakers (I counted 4 to 5 of them) between AP-KA border till Palamner RTO check post. These are not small rumblers. Each speed breaker has 3 sharp humps which you cannot take at good speed. You have to slow down to a crawl. Whats worse, the trucks carrying goods have to slow down to nearly a halt forcing all vehicles in their wake also to do the same. Some morons or drivers not anticipating such speed-breakers try to overtake the truck at this point causing minor jams for vehicles on opposite side. Please take note, since these are new speed breakers, none of them are marked as of now. They will catch you by surprise even if you are familiar with this route - even during daytime.
Note: these new ones are only between AP-KA border to Palamner. Palamner to Chittoor road status remains the same.

I guess locals are responsible for these un-scientific speed breakers. But when I think about it, I can't blame them. Looking at the way people/pilgrims to Tirupati drive on this stretch, I only pity the locals since they have to endure these speed-breakers everyday unlike once-in-a-while travellers like us.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Would I do it again?
Probably not as it does strain driver and passenger(s). We really did not have an option this time due to multiple showstoppers.
Next time, will plan to leave next day 0400 from Tirupati and reach back to BLR by ~0900.

Why the need for the hotel room for a day trip?
Have already been asked by multiple people (colleagues/friends) so preempting same. I sweat a lot and also cannot go to any puja/temple even if I use the washroom. So a shower was a must before the Lord's darshan. Similarly, I was quite tired once the joy of the darshan was over and could not have safely driven 5 hours in rain and darkness without a shower! Hence the investment of ~1.5k in the hotel.

Thank you for everyone who gave me excellent advice :-)

Glad to know you had good darshan that too pretty quick in 2 hours.
Since you are anyway taking a hotel room, my recommendation is to stay overnight and then start next day early morning which is far more comfortable and safer. Please avoid night driving in this stretch. It is indeed not safe. Even in day time, people drive rash particularly the private buses/APSRTC/KSRTC buses and some yellow board vehicles.

You can also visit Padmavathi temple in Alamelumangapuram after Srivari darshan. Usually it takes max an hour if you go in Rs. 100 or Rs. 200 ticket.

-Ravi

[ampere]

There are too many humps on the 2-lane of the stretch. Need to be careful. As regards to drive, I always prefer park the car at Tirupati hotel and go up by bus or cab. That works much better for me.

Another option to note is folks driving back to north Bangalore.

Pileru-Madanapalle-Chintamani-HCross-Vijayapura-Devanahalli works very well during daytime. Absolutely no traffic and no Hoskote-KR Puram headache.

[perty]

Originally Posted by ampere

Pileru-Madanapalle-Chintamani-HCross-Vijayapura-Devanahalli

How is the road condition on this route after the rains, especially till Chintamani ?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by perty

How is the road condition on this route after the rains, especially till Chintamani ?

Usually rains do not hamper the conditions on this road. My updates were based on last month when it was good. Do not know if it may have in the last month.