[ampere]

Originally Posted by aajohn

Will be headed to Kerala coming Thursday and will be taking the Salem - Dindigul - Theni route. Google is routing me via NH844 instead of Krishnagiri. I stay in south Bangalore and will be starting at 4/4:30 Am. Any suggestions from those who frequent these sections would be very welcome!!

If it's 4AM I would say stick to Krishnagiri. Getting to the 844 4-lane by driving till Rayakottai is quite a circus which may not be needed in the early hours.

But please manage the fog, which can be around.

[Car-go-man]

Dear BHPians
The question may sound repetitive, but would appreciate your route suggestion for a roughly 5:45 AM (cannot start earlier due to some constraints) start from Kalyan Nagar on 21st December to Coimbatore considering the following factors-
1. The ride is a 10 year old Wagon R and it does not like rough roads (I saw some rough patches on the alternate stretch from the pics shared by visgom sir.)
2. My mother in law who is diabetic needs to have breakfast by 7:30 AM. I was initially considering driving non stop till A2B Thoppur / Saisangeet but I don't think my mother-in-law and kids can wait till then.

So wanted to know if I am better off sticking to the conventional route via Krishnagiri as it has good options for breakfast or are there other good options on the Kelamangalam-Rayakottai stretch so that I can avoid the Krishnagiri stretch?

My worry is 21st Dec being a Saturday and the weekend before year-end holidays may have lot of traffic going out of Bangalore and I may get delayed on the Krishnagiri stretch (or perhaps even before that on the Attibele toll).

Thanks in advance.

[sajiseb]

Originally Posted by ampere

If it's 4AM I would say stick to Krishnagiri. Getting to the 844 4-lane by driving till Rayakottai is quite a circus which may not be needed in the early hours.

But please manage the fog, which can be around.

I could leave Bangalore by 10 am only and decided to take the Rayakottai route. There are many diversions (through villages) and one of them was not properly marked (or I missed it), so had to drive back for a couple of kms).
It will be worse to drive this route early in the morning.

[Ananthponraj]

Originally Posted by Car-go-man

Dear BHPians
The question may sound repetitive, but would appreciate your route suggestion for a roughly 5:45 AM (cannot start earlier due to some constraints) start from Kalyan Nagar on 21st December to Coimbatore considering the following factors-
1. The ride is a 10 year old Wagon R and it does not like rough roads (I saw some rough patches on the alternate stretch from the pics shared by visgom sir.)
2. My mother in law who is diabetic needs to have breakfast by 7:30 AM. I was initially considering driving non stop till A2B Thoppur / Saisangeet but I don't think my mother-in-law and kids can wait till then.

Since you are planning to start around 5:45 from Kalyan Nagar, I think reaching Electronic city itself would easily take 45 mins to 1 hr and then add another 20-30 mins to Attibele. So I would suggest stop for breakfast at A2B before the Attibele flyover. Then based on the traffic information at that point of time, you can decide to take either of the route.
If you are planning for bio-breaks before reaching Thoppur (which could be easily 2+hrs or even more based on traffic), then stick to regular Krishnagiri route as there aren't many options available on the Kelamangalam / Royakottai route.

[Sandy2345]

Guys!

I drove back to Coimbatore from Bangalore on 19th December, and I must say the Bangalore - Kanakapura - Malavalli - Chamrajanagar - Dhimbam - Coimbatore route is excellent.

At the beginning of December, I took the usual route via Salem - Krishnagiri - Bangalore, twice and was completely fed up with the truck traffic occupying all the lanes and the bottlenecks near Omalur and Hosur, which took up a considerable amount of time. On top of all this, the toll charges of around Rs. 700 one way felt completely unjustifiable for the experience. So, decided to take the other route, and boy, was I blown away by the condition of the roads. Butter smooth, they were. I did not find a single pothole! There were three non-functional toll booths which might come into use in a few months, I guess.

Fuelled up from Shell, Bellandur and started at around 6:45 AM and exited the city via Silk Institute Metro Station. Apart from the craters we see inside the city, the road condition was a breeze once I exited the city. I was a solo driver and did not need a meal break, so the scarcity of restaurants did not bother me much. I was able to maintain a steady speed of around 90-100 kmph, and my Octavia didn't gulp much fuel. I received 21 kmpl until Dhimbam, and it dropped to 19 kmpl once I reached Sathyamangalam. Only the hill roads had a small amount of truck traffic, but it was not a dealbreaker. The total time it took for me to reach Coimbatore was 6.5 hours.

For anyone going to Bangalore from Coimbatore or vice versa, I would recommend this route 10/10. No toll charges as well, apart from the Rs. 20 entry fee that you pay in the forest area near Dhimbam. However, avoid using this route at night unless your car has powerful headlights. There are no street lights throughout the route and no restaurants as well.

For people going from Coimbatore, please make sure you turn right towards Kanakapura from Malavalli and continue in NH-948 since Google might ask you to continue straight towards Maddur which will join the Mysore - Bangalore expressway.

A couple of pictures:

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by Sandy2345

Guys!

For anyone going to Bangalore from Coimbatore or vice versa, I would recommend this route 10/10. No toll charges as well, apart from the Rs. 20 entry fee that you pay in the forest area near Dhimbam. However, avoid using this route at night unless your car has powerful headlights. There are no street lights throughout the route and no restaurants as well.

Dhimbam ghat road is closed between 9 PM to 6 AM for all kind of traffic. This needs to be kept in mind if anyone takes this route from Bangalore to Coimbatore.

[RGK]

Thanks. This is undoubtedly a different approach and also this is a scenic route. Did a trip to Satyagala few years back.

A few things to keep in mind -

Truck obstructions ( a common one) on Dhimbam Ghat Road may cause a traffic jam. Trucks frequently traverse hairpin bends on the left side only.

Crossing towns without byepasses, such as Sathy, Puliampatti and Annur is necessary. Sathyamangalam can be avoided by taking Bannari - Puliampatti road and crossing the river.

The roads are really buttersmooth, but just two lanes, so extra attention is required.

[gkrishn]

Originally Posted by Sandy2345

Guys!

I drove back to Coimbatore from Bangalore on 19th December, and I must say the Bangalore - Kanakapura - Malavalli - Chamrajanagar - Dhimbam - Coimbatore route is excellent.

Is the kanakapura-malavalli-chamrajanagara road construction complete? google maps shows bypass for all these towns. couple of years back i took this route, this section was a mess.

[Sandy2345]

Originally Posted by gkrishn

Is the kanakapura-malavalli-chamrajanagara road construction complete? google maps shows bypass for all these towns. couple of years back i took this route, this section was a mess.

Hi! Yes, the construction is complete now and you don't have to enter any of the places mentioned above. You can effortlessly pass through the bypass roads.

[loki]

Got back from Kotagiri to Bangalore via Dhimbham earlier today. Smooth 2 lanes throughout. But need to keep fingers crossed at the Dhimbham hairpins. For my luck, a truck overturned at one of the hairpins about 5 mins before I reached that spot and there was a huge pileup already. Luckily there was space for a car to pass through and i managed to sneak through before traffic piled up on either side. Not sure how long it took for that mess to be cleared.

I'd still recommend the Dhimbham route while praying that there is no truck or bus mishap which apparently is very common on that stretch.

[RGK]

Originally Posted by loki

For my luck, a truck overturned at one of the hairpins about 5 mins before I reached that spot and there was a huge pileup already

This is what I specified in my post. The ghat is an uncertain route and truck volume is higher because it interfaces TN and Mysuru/West KA side directly.

Always it is way better to plan to cross this ghat early in the morning

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by loki

I'd still recommend the Dhimbham route while praying that there is no truck or bus mishap which apparently is very common on that stretch.

Dhimbam is notorious for jams that stretch for hours not only because of accidents but also due to truck break downs. With very little leeway there are occasions when vehicles had to wait overnight in the Ghats before it got cleared.

[gajadonga]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

Dhimbam is notorious for jams that stretch for hours not only because of accidents but also due to truck break downs. With very little leeway there are occasions when vehicles had to wait overnight in the Ghats before it got cleared.

2 days back reached the Dhimbam ghat from Bannari side around 6.15am in the morning there was huge pile up of trucks. Dodging all the trucks still took 30mins to reach the checkpost as there was a toll for the lorries and that was causing all the delays. Cars were exempted from toll charges. A lorry had overturned probably 4th hair pin bend but no hassle.

[kns008]

This was an incredible route. Yesterday, we drove from Dhimbam to Chamrajanagar, Malavalli, Kanakapura, and finally Bangalore, and the scenery along with the road quality truly impressed us. We arrived at the Dhimbam ghat forest entry gate around 9:30 AM, and while truck traffic was gradually increasing, it didn’t take long to navigate through the 27 hairpin bends. Highly recommend this route for anyone traveling from Coimbatore to Bangalore.

And, yet another best part - no tolls (yet). Couple of the toll gates are in construction but not yet functional.

[whitewing]

As posted by others, the Bangalore->Malavalli->Chamarajanagar->Dimbham->Coimbatore route has new tarmac, makes the driving a pleasure.

A few points to note on the drive through the tiger reserve.

1. There was a loooong pileup of trucks going towards TN at the Karnataka side(RTO check post), since this is a 2 lane road, with narrow shoulders. These trucks don't wait by pulling over but just sit in the lane. This, for more than a kilometer !
   I was unaware of this and spent almost 10 mins waiting in my lane in the truck convoy (and a few other pvt vehicles like me thinking there was a road blockage ahead), till a biker advised me that pvt vehicles can move on. If not for that good chap, I would have been stuck for a long time.
2. Plan for a longer travel time, we were heldup in the ghat for 10-15mins because a tusker decided to snack on paddy that had been spilled on the road by a passing truck.
3. While driving at the hairpin bends on the ghat a lot of the traffic take the hairpin bends driving on the opposite lane.
   I'd earlier seen laden trucks or buses with longer chassis spill over on the opposite lane, this was understandable given the space and maneuvering constraints. But, here, every other 4 wheeler seemed to switch over to the opposite lane and that too at speed! All these vehicles could have taken the hairpins easily on the correct lane by down shifting.
   After a couple of this disconcerting flips from RHS - LHS driving by the on coming traffic, I just played safe, by tailing an unladen Eicher truck in the onwards journey and a KSTRC bus on the way back - irrespective of the lane it was.

Restaurants and restroom options are limited.

Kollegala

• Hotel Harsha, breakfast was good. washroom was not (but manageable).
• Saw there were a few more larger restaurants near the bus stand.

CR Pattana

• Nijaguna restaraunts, the place was clean, food was quite good (no south Indian food in evenings) and clean restrooms. A bit pricey. It is about a kilometer deviation from the bypass road into the town.
• GTR right next to the bypass, good location (no feed back on food and washroom since we did not stop here)

Hassanur (just before the start of the ghat on the Karnataka side)

• Bhama Restaurant. Clean washrooms. (no feedback on food, tea was OK)