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kala, I can't thank you enough for this suggestion. :thumbs up

You were spot on with the remarks on the road. The scenery is amazing and the road is great to drive with all curves and elevation changes. Its like some of the stages in WRC. :)

We took only a little more than 5 hours.

The only problem is the lack of eateries on the way. Sathy was deserted maybe because it was a Sunday. Was starving for a while and then we hit jackpot. A small hotel near Annur served us amazing Chettinad Biryani.

We got to the specific address in Sai baba colony without much trouble either. A very nice cab driver guided us from Ganapathy when we stopped for asking directions.

Recently drove from bangalore to coimbatore via this route

Bangalore-Hosur-Rayakottai-Palacode-Pennagaram-Mecheri-Mettur-Anthiyur-Sathy-CBE

The roads for the most part are very good. You can maintain 80-100 easily. Hardly any traffic in a lot of stretches (especially Pennagaram-Mecheri). Absolutely no toll (only 20 at attibele. I came to hear that you can even avoid that by turning at attibele junction. Will try that sometime).

There is pipeline laying work going on between hogenakkal and palacode stretch. Some bad road around papparapatti area. I think you can avoid this stretch by going straight from palacode instead of taking right turn at palacode towards hogenakkal road. Might add a few kilometers.

as usual, rough patches between mettur and nerunjipettai but it has always been like that. Overall it took me around 6 hours driving carefully without any time pressures.

If you like some offbeat track and avoid tolls, go for it. It is worth the drive.

Here are the details of my trip to Tiruppur/Palani through NH-209. Was pleasantly surprised to see the 4L road between Avinashi and Tiruppur. Also, felt great to have stopped at Tiruppur for lunch, went for shopping and then proceeded to Palani without having to ask for directions and not making a single mistake this time.Thanks to all the authorities who have improved the state of affairs in and around Tiruppur as compared to my last visit in mid-2008. So, here are the trip details:

Guess Tiruppur becoming a Corporation is finally paying off now. Do you say this because of proper direction boards at junctions or any other reason?

Some random reasons:
1) Most roads are apparently wider with good surface
2) Most signals have good signage/direction boards and traffic signals(some with timers too)
3) Most of the main roads have high dividers too preventing people and 2-wheelers to have a random motion from one side to the other. In the past, this was one town where I have seen people crossing road with angles with much deviation from 90-degrees at their will. They start from one point on some side of the road and cross the main road to a point not necessarily directly opposite but about 100-200 meters away on the other side :Frustrati
4) Alert traffic policemen in most of the junctions, not allowing people to park 'anywhere' and even stop(mostly to attend mobile calls) on the road. Have seen them requesting groups of people as they do spread-walking. Empty autos and city buses also not allowed to stop anywhere for more than a minute or so.

On another note, have seen Avinashi bye-pass on NH-47 getting ready (not much vehicles seen on the road though while I passed) and crossing the Avinashi->Tiruppur road overhead as well. I was assuming that it was just a ground-level crossing earlier stupid:

If you are a first timer on Coimbatore->Sathy->NH209->Bangalore route, watch out for this specific junction once you climb up the Dhimbam ghats. Just after Dhimbam and before Hasanur, you will reach a junction where there is a decent road to right marked as Kollegala. If you are just heading to Bangalore, PLEASE IGNORE THIS and continue straight on NH-209 towards Chamarajanagar via Hasanur. Since the direction to Kollegala is marked very prominently, I saw a speeding Honda City with KA-02 registration (apparently heading to Bangalore) taking this turn after the driver noticing the sign-board at the junction. Not sure if they made the right choice if they were indeed driving to Bangalore since the road is reported to be in awful condition as per the Tea-shop guys in Hasanur where I just enquired about this route. Anyone knows of the latest status?

Also refer post#25 here:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ay-ooty-2.html

Hi friends can anyone give me any alternative route to bypass the stretch after palghat l&t road when I am coming from palghat so that I can reach chengampally bypass directly without going through the highway construction roads covering karumathampatti-avinashi

The roads are pretty good now between L&T and avinashi via NH47 and the diversion sections are less.You can easily cover the 45kms in an hour,I dont think its needed for you to hunt for alternate routes.

The alternate route is to go via Annur.For this at the end of the bypass,take a left towards CBE airport and at the airport junction take a right onto NH209 and once you reach the NH209 take the right and go all the way towards Annur.At Annur take a right onto the Avinashi road.

IMO this is going to be just a waste of time.Stick to the NH47 and you would easily make it.

Venkitapuram Rd to Avinashi, Tamil Nadu - Google Maps

Here is an alternate, Coimbatore bypass-Sulur-Palladam-Kangeyam-Perundurai.
Palakkad, Kerala, India to Perundurai, Tamil Nadu, India - Google Maps
But please note, this is about 20km more than the usual Avinashi route. I do not think the construction is that bad now, in which case you can very well try the regular route.

Had a chance to drive to Coimbatore last Saturday and decided to try the NH-209. Surprisingly, this is the first time I'm doing this although, have driven into the Dhimbam ghats from Sathy many times before.

3.45 pm: Start from Whitefield *Took the Varthur-Dommasandra-Chandapura-NICE Road to reach Kanakapura Road
4.15pm: NICE Road *Caught in jam on the Bannerghatta cross-over for 20 mins
5.20pm: Kanakapura
5.55pm: Malavalli
6.30pm: Kollegal *Early Dinner stop at Hotel Nandini Deluxe opp Bus stand for 45mins
7.15pm: Depart Kollegal
8.00pm: Chamarajnagar
9.30pm: Sathyamangalam
10.55pm: Reach Ramanathapuram, Coimbatore

Route conditions were pretty decent through out. But my vote goes to the ghat section which has some excellent TAR. Being the first time, I obviously had to stop and check directions with locals. But other than that, it was a very eventful trip because of these:
1. Did the ghat section in the night, which was quite interesting for wife and kid.
2. Spotted elephants just 2km before Dhimbam on the gutter by the road side. However, a couple of inebriated citizens got down the vehicle in front of me and started shouting aloud. The pachyderms were disturbed and it could've well been another human-animal conflict, but luckily they chose to play wise and turned away into the jungle. Had blood gushing to my head to teach those idiots a lesson, but they were obviously not in a condition to deal with, so left at that and drove away. :Frustrati
3. There was an accident on one of the hairpins in the afternoon with a lorry overturning. They had just cleared it around 5.30pm so very fortunate to not be struck in the ghats! I could still see the logs that the lorry carried block half of the turn in the bend.
4. As mentioned by regulars, the driving discipline by the trucks on the ghats was awesome. However, was let down by a few speeding cars who try to take the best of the situation when you patiently stop for the climbing trucks.
5. Since it was well past night, I had planned on taking the Sathy road all the way to Gandhipuram through Ganapathy to reach my final destination-Ramanathapuram. But there was a Rekla race (bullock-cart race) happening on the main road just after Annur and was frustrating to overtake them with the 2-way traffic. I then decided to branch off at Kurumbapalayam to take the Kalapatty route to reach Citra(Airport) and then to Ramanathapuram through Avinashi Road.

Since you are starting from Palghat, another alternative could be,
Palghat-Pollachi-Dharapuram-Kangeyam-Perundurai or,
Palghat-Pollachi-Dharapuram-Karur-Salem-Bangalore.

Is there any night time traffic restrictions on NH-209 in forest areas like in NH-212 or Mysore -Ooty highway?

As per regulars in this route, there is no traffic restriction during night. Also there are TN and KA Govt buses in this route during night.

Please see post#490 above. There are no traffic restrictions on NH-209 in forest areas, apparently because it is not intersecting with the "core" corridors of wild-life movements. Also, when you drive through NH-209, beyond C.R. Nagar, you will see fencing/trenches on the right side clearly demarcating the forest area and the highway being just the border/periphery there. Incidentally, B.R. Hills and the adjoining areas on the left side on the same stretch (Yellandur onwards) is a protected zone and traffic restrictions apply if you venture into those roads.

Drove to Coimbatore and back last Thursday from Bangalore. Here is a short update

Route taken : Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Salem - Avinashi - Coimbatore

• Bangalore to Shoolargiri A2B (did not stop here) - 90 minutes
• Shoolagiri A2B to Thopur A2B (Dinner) - 90 minutes
• Thopur A2B to Chengapalli - 140 minutes
• Chengapalli to Park Plaza Hotel, Avinashi Road, Coimbatore - 140 minutes

The last sector was just 60 kms but it takes more than 2 hours as there is construction going on in this section the road (or whatever is left of it) which keeps shunting between the left and right side of the road under construction. Its very difficult specially in the night. But I took it as I had booked my stay in a hotel in Avinashi road (only to realize how bad a decision it was)

People going to Coimbatore might benefit from the following alternatives

• Chengapalli - Tirupur - Palladam - Coimbatore
• Chengapalli - Avinashi - Anur - Coimbatore
• Bangalore - Ooty - Coimbatore

In the second option one has to still put up with 17 odd kms of the bad stretch between Chengapalli & Avinashi and I guess there is night time driving restrictions on the 3rd option.