[ampere]

Originally Posted by NPV

Does this route go inside avinashi town ? Is it easy to cross the place ?
I'm thinking of just continuing on the 4/6 Lane till Neelambur and taking avinashi road till Nava junction as Arun has mentioned, but will try on another trip. Hectic one this time.

No need I think
- Go past the Mangalam road. (we all know very well how to be there)
- Go below the next flyover and get on Annur road.

Route Link

- With a Garmin you should be able to manage it easily.
- The reason, why this option scores in my opinion is you can directly Goundampalayam/Sai Baba Colony without taking the city traffic.
- Annur-Karamadai is quite OK. (Not been there recently though. It was way way back for me. Would be good to check seasoned folks on this one) Ravi ?

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by NPV

Does this route go inside avinashi town ? Is it easy to cross the place ?
I'm thinking of just continuing on the 4/6 Lane till Neelambur and taking avinashi road till Nava junction as Arun has mentioned, but will try on another trip. Hectic one this time.

Originally Posted by ampere

No need I think
- Go past the Mangalam road. (we all know very well how to be there)
- Go below the next flyover and get on Annur road.

- The reason, why this option scores in my opinion is you can directly Goundampalayam/Sai Baba Colony without taking the city traffic.
- Annur-Karamadai is quite OK. (Not been there recently though. It was way way back for me. Would be good to check seasoned folks on this one) Ravi ?

I would prefer the 4/6 lane especially after this Avinashi-Coimbatore is completed with the road work and with no speedbreakers.(previously every flyover was having speed breakers). This helps you to reach till the airport in no time.

Regarding the annur route, crossing avinashi town is not a big deal but being a two lane road, if you get stuck behind traffic then overtaking will be a issue and you will lose time. Plus this is a longer route.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Regarding the annur route, crossing avinashi town is not a big deal but being a two lane road, if you get stuck behind traffic then overtaking will be a issue and you will lose time. Plus this is a longer route.

Usually beyond Annur, traffic is not heavy. But as you say, I guess the completion of 4/6 lanes have tilted the equation these days.

[batterylow]

Originally Posted by NPV

Question for Coimbatore experts...
If going to NSR Road in Sai Baba Colony, Coimbatore which is a better route ?
1.Take Avinashi Road all the way till it meets the Ooty (NH 67) road and turn right ? OR
2.Take Dr.Rajendra Prasad Road, then Power House Road, Cross Cut road and get off the ramp to enter Ooty Road ? This is the route Gmaps suggests but wondering if this is better than #1 ? Also, any landmark to spot the turn off to Rajendra Prasad Road from Avinashi road ?

Please use the route as suggested by Arun.K, except that once you reach Ooty road, turn left at the first signal ( The one just ahead of Avinashilingam College) and head straight on that road and that runs parallel to NSR road and you can suitable take the right according to how far along NSR road you need to go.

Originally Posted by ampere

Another option is : Avinashi-Annur-Karamadai-Goundampalaym.

Goundampalayam and the GN mills signals are chock-a-block with traffic these days.

[suresh_gs]

Folks

My office colleague had been to Coimbatore last week via Mettur-Bhavani route. He said the road from Thoppur to Mecheri has been relaid completely afresh. I too noticed that work was going on in relaying this road new while driving back to Bangalore from Coimbatore in the last week of March 2016.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by ampere

Usually beyond Annur, traffic is not heavy. But as you say, I guess the completion of 4/6 lanes have tilted the equation these days.

Yes, reaching airport signal will take around 30 mins only. At the same time when you take annur route,exiting from the highway, crossing avinashi and reaching annur itself will take 25-30 mins. From here its another 40+kms through karamadai which will take at least an hour, if not more.

So it will be faster continuing on the 4/6L from avinashi.

[NPV]

Update from my trip to Coimbatore, Thursday and Friday (28, 29 Apr):
Onward:
Started around 12:15pm from Bangalore, very heavy traffic from Brigade road all the way till Silk Board, reached Attibele 1:35pm, Salem 4:30pm and Coimbatore Neelambur junction/Avinashi road by 6pm. Took another hour to reach the destination on NSR Road, Sai Baba colony. @Arun.K - thanks for the superb directions, reached easily.

Return:
Started around 1pm from NSR Road, reached Attibele at 6:30pm with a 30 minute break at A2B Thoppur. From Attibele took 2 grueling hours to reach home in bumper to bumper traffic moving extremely slowly
In fact, the elevated road traffic came to standstill around 4Km before Silk Board!
From here it was a crawl all the way to Residency Road (took this route since my destination was near Ulsoor lake).

**I'm not sure if I took a very roundabout route to reach Avinashi road from NSR Road - turned right on Mettupalayam Road, left onto Brookfield mall road, turned right, went past Syrian church, turned right below the flyover, took the up ramp and turned left on Tricky Road. Turned left again to reach Avinashi road, turned left and made a U turn to head in the Bangalore direction. Is there a better/alternate route ?

[batterylow]

Originally Posted by NPV

**I'm not sure if I took a very roundabout route to reach Avinashi road from NSR Road - turned right on Mettupalayam Road, left onto Brookfield mall road, turned right, went past Syrian church, turned right below the flyover, took the up ramp and turned left on Tricky Road. Turned left again to reach Avinashi road, turned left and made a U turn to head in the Bangalore direction. Is there a better/alternate route ?

Next time please reverse the direction you took to reach Avinashi road, that leads you to a point where you would have crossed atleast 5 signals on the road.

NSR road->Right onto mettupalayam road->Flyover on ramp->get down towards power house->100 feet road-> head straight beyond the flyover under construction and take that road all the way to the Avinashi road.

Or alternatively, once you climb the flyover past Syrian Church, make a complete circle and take the road that leads upwards,( towards east), that lands directly into Avinashi road

[NPV]

Originally Posted by batterylow

NSR road->Right onto mettupalayam road->Flyover on ramp->get down towards power house->100 feet road-> head straight beyond the flyover under construction and take that road all the way to the Avinashi road.

Or alternatively, once you climb the flyover past Syrian Church, make a complete circle and take the road that leads upwards,( towards east), that lands directly into Avinashi road

Thanks!
Will keep this mind next time and try them.

The first one is the one I took in the onward journey, correct ? The one that joins near Nava India/Nexa on Avinashi road ?

In the second option, at the roundabout, the first exit (left) is the one I took towards Good shed road/Trichy road. I should ignore the next exit and take the third one or should I take the second one ?

[luvurride]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

Folks

My office colleague had been to Coimbatore last week via Mettur-Bhavani route. He said the road from Thoppur to Mecheri has been relaid completely afresh. I too noticed that work was going on in relaying this road new while driving back to Bangalore from Coimbatore in the last week of March 2016.

If this is true, then it is a real good news about a toll-avoiding alternate route!
We can completely avoid the tolls from Thoppur by taking Thoppur-Mecheri-Ammapettai-Anthiyur-Athani-Sathy-CBE.

It used to be good earlier but then the Thoppur to Ammapettai stretch deteriorated. I'm hoping the rest of the stretch from Ammapettai onwards should be good.

[batterylow]

Originally Posted by NPV

Thanks!
Will keep this mind next time and try them.

The first one is the one I took in the onward journey, correct ? The one that joins near Nava India/Nexa on Avinashi road ?

In the second option, at the roundabout, the first exit (left) is the one I took towards Good shed road/Trichy road. I should ignore the next exit and take the third one or should I take the second one ?

Correct, the first is retracing your onward journey.

Regarding the second option, the exits are as follows.

1. Towards goods shed road.
2. Towards Sukrawarpet
3. Is presently closed ( The off ramp)
4. Heads to Avinashi road ( Climbs upwards)

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by luvurride

If this is true, then it is a real good news about a toll-avoiding alternate route!
We can completely avoid the tolls from Thoppur by taking Thoppur-Mecheri-Ammapettai-Anthiyur-Athani-Sathy-CBE.

It used to be good earlier but then the Thoppur to Ammapettai stretch deteriorated. I'm hoping the rest of the stretch from Ammapettai onwards should be good.

My colleague will be back to office on Monday. By Tuesday I shall give an update on the route he took to Coimbatore back and forth.

[kala]

Originally Posted by luvurride

If this is true, then it is a real good news about a toll-avoiding alternate route!
We can completely avoid the tolls from Thoppur by taking Thoppur-Mecheri-Ammapettai-Anthiyur-Athani-Sathy-CBE.

Wonder why you need to go through all these hoops if the purpose is just to avoid tolls. As per Google the route you mention (Bangalore-Krishnagiri-Thoppur-Mecheri-Anthiyur-Sathi-Coimbatore) is 348 kms and Google's estimated travel time is 6 hrs 48 minutes (as against 5 hours 38 minutes for 363 kms through Salem). And you would be driving close to 200 kms out of that distance on 2 lane roads, and also paying the tolls between Bangalore and Thoppur.

If you don't mind driving on 2 lane roads, take NH209 instead and pay zero tolls. The distance is only 317 kms, and Google estimates the journey to be 6 hours 25 minutes. (It's lower in my experience. It takes me under 4.5 hours from my place near Banashankari in Bangalore to Annur where I normally turn off towards Karumathampatty on my trips to Cochin, so add another 45 minutes max for the 30 kms from Annur to CBE, and it should take you under 5.5 hours overall).

And road conditions are very good all the way through. The only slight risk is that of a possible traffic jam on Dimbhum ghats, but touch wood - I've never encountered one so far in the innumerable trips I've done on that route over the last 15-20 years.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by kala

take NH209 instead and pay zero tolls. ...The only slight risk is that of a possible traffic jam on Dimbhum ghats, but touch wood - I've never encountered one so far in the innumerable trips I've done on that route over the last 15-20 years.

I used to vouch for the NH-209 route too, however, once I had this terrible experience of getting caught in a jam, and I state the riders before suggesting it to anyone.

[luvurride]

Originally Posted by kala

Wonder why you need to go through all these hoops if the purpose is just to avoid tolls. The only slight risk is that of a possible traffic jam on Dimbhum ghats, but touch wood - I've never encountered one so far in the innumerable trips I've done on that route over the last 15-20 years.

Originally Posted by silversteed

I used to vouch for the NH-209 route too, however, once I had this terrible experience of getting caught in a jam, and I state the riders before suggesting it to anyone.

Ah yes, this totally skipped me as I had avoided this route when the bridge was closed! It's not about the tolls, but to have a varied experience.

Even otherwise, I always contemplate taking this route simply because I stay in Whitefield and for me to latch onto NICE, it takes a good hour and half! And the unpredictable Dhimbham! I had been struck twice and hence has never been a comfortable choice.