[RedOne]

Hi

I usually take the bangalore salem nagarcoil trivandrum route with Nagarcoil being a bottleneck. Google Maps now shows a route bypassing Nagarcoil. Turn left at Aralvaimozhi about 10 km before Nagarcoil, through Bhoothapandi, Kulasekharam, and joining NH47 back at Marthandam.

Anyone tried this route or has any input on road conditions? I am leaving Bangalore tomorrow morning.

Gears,
Red-One.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by RedOne

Anyone tried this route or has any input on road conditions? I am leaving Bangalore tomorrow morning.

Gears,
Red-One.

Between Nagercoil and Kaliyikavila most of the enormous potholes and bad stretches on the NH47 have been patched very well recently. So driving on this route is not as frustrating as it was before. But the random bad sections between Thovalai and Ozhuginassery exists as before. I travelled this route on Aug 17th.

Between Pulimoodu Jn (on Kulasekaram marthandam road) and Marthandam there are bad sections and post this monsoon season it might have become worse. But from Pulimoodu Jn to Kulasekharam the surface was OK. Sorry i couldn't help you with further info on this route.

[hamster]

RedOne,
J. Ravi saab seem to have recently taken this route recently, but the other way round (Kulasekaram to Aralvaimozhi). I even asked the same query as yours about the route. May be you can PM him to have quick check.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...heetah-11.html

[arun_josie]

Yesterday I took the nagercoil - trivandrum stretch till kaliakkavilai. The overall road condition is average, I would say. Few stretches are excellent since they have been relaid recently. Some are average and in couple of places, it is worst where you will have to come to zero speed while crossing the potholes. I took 45 minutes from Nagercoil to kaliakkavilai, started at 5PM and reached kaliakkavilai at 5:45 PM, this is a very decent timing considering that it was raining as well.

[arun_josie]

Update on the Nagercoil town bypass road,



- You will have to turn right from the Aralvaimozhi junction and join back near kaliankadu junction on the Nagercoil - Trivandrum highway.
- Its around 21Kms of distance
- Scenic route
- First 16Kms are good/excellent and then it becomes average to bad.
- Very less traffic
- It takes around 25 minutes

Considering the current condition of Aralvaimozhi - Nagercoil stretch, I will take this bypass without any hesitation. But not after dark.

Few pis from my dash cam,

[Freon911]

Originally Posted by RedOne

Hi

I usually take the bangalore salem nagarcoil trivandrum route with Nagarcoil being a bottleneck. Google Maps now shows a route bypassing Nagarcoil. Turn left at Aralvaimozhi about 10 km before Nagarcoil, through Bhoothapandi, Kulasekharam, and joining NH47 back at Marthandam.

Anyone tried this route or has any input on road conditions? I am leaving Bangalore tomorrow morning.

Gears,
Red-One.

Redone,

Did you take the route you had shared earlier? Can you please share travel time details and road condition?

Originally Posted by hamster

I even asked the same query as yours about the route.

Originally Posted by Freon911

Can you please share travel time details and road condition?

I drove on this route from Club Mahindra, Poovar to Bangalore via Thirparappu waterfalls>Kulasekaram>Aralvaimozhi>Kavalkinaru on 21 Aug 2014. The details are here. I left Thirparappu waterfalls at 2:30 pm, had evening tiffin at Arya's at Satthur bypass at 5:30 pm and reached Bangalore Basaveswara Nagar home at 1 am on 22 Aug 2014. The tarmac and road conditions were good generally barring a few bad stretches, but that was very negligible compared to the beautiful road that winds through rubber plantations and paddy fields. The traffic volume was very less. Yes, I will take this route [Kavalkinaru>Aralvaimozhi>Boothapandi>Kulasekaram>P oovar>Kovalam>Thiruvanthapuram] to drive to Thiruvananthapuram from Chennai/Bangalore.

[suresh_gs]

Folks

Latest toll charges from bangalore to thiruvananthapuram by car as on 12th Sep 2014

[RedOne]

Originally Posted by Freon911

Redone,

Did you take the route you had shared earlier? Can you please share travel time details and road condition?

Hi
I chickened out at the last minute and took the regular road thru Nagarcoil town. But from other posts here, looks like the Aralvaimozhi - Bhoothapandi - Kulasekharam- Marthandam road is not bad either and would be a good option to avoid Nagarcoil traffic. The road from Nagarcoil to Marthandam was below average, with some really bad 1st gear stretches. Once we entered Kerala, road conditions were surprisingly better.

Left Bangalore at 4 AM
Reached Nagarcoil at 12:15 PM with 3 breaks
Reached home (Vazhuthacaud) at 2:30 PM.

Gears,
Red-One.

[pradyblr]

Did BLR-Salem-Madurai-Nagercoil-TVM return trip during Diwali.
Started at 3 AM from BLR and reached 14.30 PM at TVM with slow moving traffic on the nagercoil-tvm route and lots of break.
For the return journey started from TVM at 4.30 and reached BLR at 15:30, this time with slow moving traffic at Salem bypass and hosur.

Beautiful road conditions throughout except a stretch of Nagercoil-TVM route.

While I was in TVM, the widening of some stretch of this road was inaugurated by the Kerala CM. Hopefully this will further reduce the travel time, once completed.

[varghesepaul]

Hello All:

Looking for advise on the best route from Bangalore to Trivandrum....my initial thought was to avoid the Salem- Coimbatore, Kerala route and to go via Nagercoil. Is the best route?...any good restaurants along the way since I am traveling with family?. I plan to start on the 19th morning from Bangalore. I haven't travelled by road to Trivandrum in the last 5 years and so looking for some advice.

Any and all advice appreciated.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by varghesepaul

Hello All:

Looking for advise on the best route from Bangalore to Trivandrum....my initial thought was to avoid the Salem- Coimbatore, Kerala route and to go via Nagercoil. Is the best route?...any good restaurants along the way since I am traveling with family?. I plan to start on the 19th morning from Bangalore. I haven't travelled by road to Trivandrum in the last 5 years and so looking for some advice.

Any and all advice appreciated.

Mate, To go to Nagercoil you have to go via Salem,Madurai. Coimbatore does not come into the picture. Or did you mean go via NH209, Coimbatore, Thrissur and Kochi to Trivandrum.

[varghesepaul]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Mate, To go to Nagercoil you have to go via Salem,Madurai. Coimbatore does not come into the picture. Or did you mean go via NH209, Coimbatore, Thrissur and Kochi to Trivandrum.

Hello Suresh: thanks for your reply and apologies for the confusion - I was asking if it was better to go to Trivandrum via Madurai, Nagercoil than going through Coimbatore Thrissur since I wanted to avoid the Kerala traffic. However, was not sure of the traffic and road conditions on the Madurai, Nagercoil route.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by varghesepaul

Hello Suresh: thanks for your reply and apologies for the confusion - I was asking if it was better to go to Trivandrum via Madurai, Nagercoil than going through Coimbatore Thrissur since I wanted to avoid the Kerala traffic. However, was not sure of the traffic and road conditions on the Madurai, Nagercoil route.

Even if you choose Salem, Coimbatore, Palakkad, Thrissur , Kochi route or Salem,Madurai route the bottlenecks will be more in the former route. Infact driving till Madurai will be a lot better than going through Coimbatore. Moreover post Walayar, the road conditions are not that great while you have 4 lane roads all the way till Madurai.
I would suggest going via Madurai.

Experts can throw more light on this.

[Jaguar]

I am planning a drive to Trivandrum on 25th. Any idea about the Madurai-Tenkasi-Trivandrum route https://goo.gl/maps/Nplw0? How is it compared to Madurai-Nagarcoil-Trivandrum?

And are there any good restaurants between Trivandrum and Takalay? Might visit Kumarakovil and am looking for some place with clean toilets to stop and have coffee or something.