[rangaraj]

Originally Posted by m8002?

Follow akroy's route with a small correction. You can go directly to Mettupalayam from Sathy ( via sirumugai ). Its one of the most exciting stretches in the whole route. Its a beatiful road with no traffic.

Thanks.. What about Ammanpetai to Satyamangalam? I have attached a map and could not find a road that connects them directly other than via Chellipalayam? Any thing to look out for?

Originally Posted by akroy

The route has been discussed in details many times in this thread. Suggest you to go through page2 of this thread and read csentil's post on the THoppur - Mettur - Ammapet - Saty - Annur - Mettupalayam.

You can also choose to do the return journey through Ooty - Mysore. By doing you can cover the entire Niligiri range and also some breathtaking scenic view points as well.

Abhi

Thanks..

Originally Posted by ravibhat

I second that, Next year I will be doing samething. Bangalore - thoppur - Mettur - Satyamangalam - Mettupalayam - Kothagiri - Ooty - Mysore - Bangalore. Drive itself is exciting in this stretch. This is ideal 3-4 days outing from Bangalore.

Ravi.

thanks Ravi.. I may try this out this weekend..

[rangaraj]

Here is the map that i referred to you in the last post..

[m8002?]

Forget the map. For the latest upto date information...check on T-BHP

The exact distances, landmarks, road conditions from mettur to Sathyamangalam are discussed in a few posts before. Please go thru them

[pypkmsrikanth]

@ rangaraj

The route from Sathyamangalam to Mettupalayam goes via Bhavanisagar, Sirumugai. Awesome 2 lane state highway, you would find the Bhavani Sagar dam on your right hand side for some distance after which you will have the forest with electrical fencing for a long stretch. Dont worry about the map, just ask for directions for Mettupalayam at Sathyamangalam its not difficult to find.

Edit - I have added the map which you had marked with the route marked from Ammapettai to Mettupalyam by hand - please note that its not the actual route map but a tentative drawing for your reference.

[rangaraj]

Thanks guys.. Will write up my travelogue post the trip..

[im_srini]

Was on the Thoppur - Mecheri - Ammapet - Anthiyur - Athani - Sathy - Annur - CBE route this weekend. It was my first time on it, & after zipping along on 4-laned roads till Dharmapuri this route was a disappointment. The route consisted of relatively narrow 2-laned roads with bits of broken tarmac & a lot of commercial traffic in both directions (which made overtaking quite tedious). Average speeds drop drastically in the Thoppur to Sathy section. The Sathy to CBE route (NH 209), however is, amazing ! Although its still median-less & two-laned, its relatively wide, has been relaid recently, & is delightfully twisty - driving on this stretch will bring a smile to your face

On the return leg I took the tried-&-tested CBE - Avinashi - Salem - Dharmapuri route. From CBE, splendid 4-lane roads greet you for a distance of around 70 Kms towards Salem. Beyond that, 4-laning is being carried out & a few diversions exist. Some sections haven't been touched at all, but thankfully they are very brief. Once you hit the Salem bye-pass, its one glorious 4-lane stretch to Krishnagiri & then onwards to Chennai. I would prefer the Salem - Avinashi route to the Thoppur - Sathy route, to CBE.

Toll for the stretch, from CBE to Chennai, is Rs.48 (Dharmapuri) + Rs.35 (Vaniyambadi) + Rs. 45 (Pallikonda) + Rs. 25 (Samudram) + Rs. 30 (Sriperumbudur). Another toll-plaza is coming up on the CBE to Salem stretch. L&T have to be commended for their excellent work on the Krishnagiri to Salem stretch & the BP-A2B on the Dharmapuri - Krishnagiri stretch was a welcome surprise.

[hellstar]

I concur with srini on that and i would take the Blore- kgiri - Salem road any day amazing roads , give the route from Salem to Coimbatore another six months and this will be as good as the Kgiri - Salem strech .. and it would be a breeze from blr to cbe

[csentil]

Thats a good update. Coz when I did Salem - Cbe a year or so back it was horrendous. Took 4 plus hours. It was not the time but the traffic and the absence of shoulders.

I would still love the Ammapet route as its quite scenic and peaceful to drive. Remember these were not even State Highways. These were single lane rural roads which have got upgraded quite recently. Sathy - Cbe is NH. The road quality decreases steadily as we go up from Sathy towards Chamrajnagar.

Yes once the Salem - Cbe stretch is done it should be 2 hrs or lesser for the whole distance.

srini, do u have an exact update on where the 4 laning is complete and where it is not? Is the Avinashi byepass done? How's the Perundurai - Salem route. Is that complete?

I guess once guys get used to 4 lane driving and times it can be a disappointment with the 2 lanes.

[im_srini]

Originally Posted by csentil

Coz when I did Salem - Cbe a year or so back it was horrendous. Took 4 plus hours.

Yes, the same stretch was in need of quite a bit of work just 6 months back (Diwali). I was surprised by the amount of work completed in the past few months.

Originally Posted by csentil

do u have an exact update on where the 4 laning is complete and where it is not? Is the Avinashi byepass done? How's the Perundurai - Salem route. Is that complete?

On the CBE to Salem stretch, 4-laning is complete, in all respects, for a distance of around 70 Kms (from CBE towards Salem), so I guess the Avinashi bye-pass is complete.

Avinashi-CBE was a troublesome section with a lot of commercial traffic - the 4-lanes & median should help a lot in making this stretch motorable for smaller vehicles. Even on the rest of the route towards Salem, its much better than what it was a few months back. One or two sections have not been 4-laned (2-laned roads with questionable pavement), but the distances are quite short, often just a Km or two (max). This stretch is ~90% complete & there are occasional diversions from one side to the other.

Like HellStar has mentioned, give it a few more months, say by Diwali, & this stretch should be glorious to drive on. The Krishnagiri-Salem & Sathy-CBE stretches are my favorites now, too bad they had to go & put up all those humps in the ghat section

[anainar]

Originally Posted by im_srini

The Sathy to CBE route (NH 209), however is, amazing ! Although its still median-less & two-laned, its relatively wide, has been relaid recently, & is delightfully twisty - driving on this stretch will bring a smile to your face

Yes, that stretch is a driver's pleasure. But passenger's pain! Especially if they are motion sick. I had three adults in my car and I was zipping through the twisties, with a broad smile, till one of them gently reminded me that any more such driving will cause irreversible damage to the leather upholstery. So, I had to slow down. The road is amazing and any day I would take it for the sheer fun.

Am dying to try this route. Have traveled to CBE quiet a few times and all the times it was pain, either near Avinashi, or beyond Avinashi-CBE stretch with lot of trucks. May be will do the trip for the heck of it.

Nainar

[lejhoom]

On 8th I was to travel to Guruvayoor with my family to attend a wedding. Had booked tickets by Sabari Express up to Trichur. Unfortunately only half the number of seats were confirmed and as the train pulled in to Secunderabad station I made a last ditch effort to get all the tickets confirmed, but in vain. On an inspiration cancelled the tickets and came back home, took the Innova and drove to Kerala. Reached Bangalore around 10 in the night. While nearing Bangalore I was weighing options as to which way to proceed—Mysore-Sultan Battery-Calicut or Mysore-Malvalli-Sathy-Coimbatore or as I vaguely remember the route mentioned by csentil in this thread on page 1. Finally decided on the last option and drove on towards Hosur. Much before Hosur, stopped at a hotel for the night. Actually I could not remember the route clearly. Using my mobile net connection managed to open Team-Bhp site and noted down the places enroute. Around nine in the morning left the hotel. The traffic was just warming up in Bangalore city and managed to reach Hosur without much trouble. There is a place attached to HP petrol bunk before Krishnagiri where we had breakfast. Good place with nice facilities for travellers. Hit the road again and I was amazed at how nice the road is that took me to Dharmapuri. However, I made a mistake before reaching Dharmapuri. Somehow while reading the route on the net I understood that I had to cross Dharmapuri. Actually someone had mentioned in the thread "Dharmapuri (bypass)". I thought one has to go through Dharmapuri to reach the bypass. Wasted a full 30 minutes driving through the town. I even had to encounter the closed railway gate before driving back to the highway. Drove through Mettur and on to Sathy and Coimbatore. The road was good. The ubiquitous TVS 50 all over the road was giving me headache. Once I nearly knocked down a man who decided to turn right at the moment I was about to overtake him. He non-chalantly put his right hand out to indicate his intention to turn right to go home without caring a hoot if there was any vehicle coming behind. ABS brakes in the Innova saved his life. I believe the road would be wonderful early in the morning or in the night. I went through Ammapeti-Mettur road because I was apprehensive of Salem road as mentioned in the thread.
However, as I opened the thread today to read I was pleasntly surprised to note what im_srini had written. Next time I shall take the Salem route. In fact, after driving the four lane, it sort of irritates you to drive through Mettur etc.
It is worth mentioning that just before reaching Ammapettai on the highway, severe restriction was imposed on the speed on the ghat like road that winds down. It appears that some ghastly accidents took place in that stretch.
The last time I drove my Palio MJD through Sathy-Coimbatore route was about four months back. Then I felt the road to be very good. But now sitting in the Innova the road looked atrociously twisting and winding. I could not achieve the speed I got in the Palio.
On the return journey I drove through Calicut-Sultan Battery-Mysore-Bangalore. I regretted this decision of mine very soon. After Gundalpet the road suddenly turns for the worse. It is a poke marked surface that greets you all the way up to Mysore. It's really uninteresting to drive the Mysore-Bangalore road now. Quite a few speed breakers have come up on this stretch, many of them without any warning. The joy of Mysore-Bangalore drive is no more. I believe the engineers should have designed the road considering the villages and towns that the road was cutting across. In those places the road should have been elevated to allow locals to move across under the road through some underpass. It's time they went back to the design board for a brand new road, away from these villages.
Work on Bangalore-Hyderabad road is going on full swing. I am sure it is going to be another full year before this road becomes a full four-lane.
I would like to thank csentil for the route instruction for Bangalore to Coimbatore. If only one can find a way to avoid driving through Bangalore city, the drive from Hyderabad to Coimbatore is definitely quicker than through Hyd-Bang-Mysore.

[csentil]

Hey thanks man. There are a lot of updates on this thread from all users and that's what makes Team Bhp so great.

Yes the Sathy road is extremely winding. There are a few blind turns and are quite accident prone. So a lot of newbies to that road commit the cardinal sin of overspeeding and then find themselves stuck in a bad position at times.

[GenuineOptimist]

I'm going to drive from Blr to Cbe next week. Since a lot of work seems to be going on in the highways in the field, I need an update from team on the entire stretch.

I'll do Whitefield-Attibele-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Thoppur.

From here, I've done both Thoppur-Salem-Avinashi-Coimbatore and Thoppur-Mettur-Bhavani-Perundurai-Coimbatore before.

I've seen the Salem route is tedious with lot of traffic. How is the situation now? Avinashi-Cbe is also a big problem with traffic. So I want to avoid this unless its completely 4 laned. Can anyone who drove recently give an update pls?

After Mettur, how does Ammapettai-Athani-Sathy compare to Bhavani-Perundurai. If the roads are nice in the former I'll take that to avoid Avinashi. Update on that please.

Is there a bypass for Kaveripattinam, Dharmapuri and sathyamangalam?

Also, I've to goto Peelamedu. Is there a ring-road to reach this place skipping Ganapathy-Gandipuram?

EDIT: Safety is very important to me, above Speed and Time saved.

[quicksilver]

Originally Posted by GenuineOptimist

Avinashi-Cbe is also a big problem with traffic. So I want to avoid this unless its completely 4 laned. Can anyone who drove recently give an update pls?

Avinashi CBE has not been 4 laned yet and is congested at all times, best avoided.

Originally Posted by GenuineOptimist

After Mettur, how does Ammapettai-Athani-Sathy compare to Bhavani-Perundurai. If the roads are nice in the former I'll take that to avoid Avinashi. Update on that please.

The former is a little bit longer but definitely worth it as the roads have minimal traffic. Just be wary of Sathy-Coimbatore road as the road surface is smooth but the roads are winding with sudden curves. Traffic is minimal.

Originally Posted by GenuineOptimist

Also, I've to goto Peelamedu. Is there a ring-road to reach this place skipping Ganapathy-Gandipuram?

EDIT: Safety is very important to me, above Speed and Time saved.

From Sathy road, you can take a left at Saravanampatti where you will seea sign that says "Airport Road" or something like that. This will takeyou directly to CITRA/Peelamedu airport. Roads are OK with minimal traffic, once youhit Avinashi Road you can turn right and come into the City to reach Peelamedu. Not sure if this is the best route as it is longer than the regular Ganapathy-Gandhipuram route.

[csentil]

Quicksilver has covered almost everything. You will not see Kaveripatnam, Karimangalam or Dharmapuri in your life ever again. Once you cross Krishnagiri bypass you will only see awesome roads all the way till Thoppur. There's a toll gate just before the Thoppur ghat section.

Actually Perundurai - Avanashi is done pretty much however Salem - Perundurai is still work in progress.

My uncle usually does Krishnagiri - Thoppur - Omalur - Sankagiri and then onwards to Perundurai - Avanashi - Coimbatore. He says this route is also pretty much ok.

Thoppur - Mettur roads have deteriorated a bit after the rains but still doable. Do update once you do this sector.