[e-katz]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Is the Tada route still the best. I'm planning my first trip to Tirupati. Will be starting early morning tomorrow, and returning same day.

1. Being a sunday, what time should I start to avoid crowds at Tirupati.

2. Which is the best route? I understand that most people recommend the TADA route. Need to google for directions.

3. Is is possible to visit Kalahasti en-route, possibily while returning in the afternoon?

Let us know the details of how your trip went. I am planning a trip next Sunday.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

2. Which is the best route? I understand that most people recommend the TADA route. Need to google for directions

Take Madras-Tada-Nayudupeta-Kalahasti-Tirupati. Its wide roads and you dont have to traverse through Kalahasti town

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

3. Is is possible to visit Kalahasti en-route, possibily while returning in the afternoon?

Though it bypasses Kalahasti town via Nayudupeta, Kalahasti temple is very accessible from the bypass road.

[RGK]

Made a tirupathi trip on Monday - 5th Nov'12

Thanks to Superslick for giving the Maduravoyal bye pass tip. Started from Ashok nagar around 4.15 pm and crossed Porur to take the bye pass. It saved a lot of time that I was able to reach Puzhal (on the NH5) in 40 min. The exact distance from Porur Entry to Redhills is 15 kms.
At the exit, the traffic clogged due to trucks and the merge happening from the service road to NH. It took around 20 minutes to get into the road. After crossing Pannagemedu, the road and traffic became normal.

Note: NH expansion and rains have spoiled the road.

After driving exactly 56 Kms, taken left to Kalahasti at Tada junction. The road till Kalahasti is very nice and smooth, but spoiled by speed breakers. No warning signs or markings. So one need to be careful.

I took right after crossing Kalahasti bus stand to avoid getting into the town. Drove a while to reach the Nayudapettah - Renigunta Highway and took left. The road is wide enough but again with speed breakers.

Just before Reniguntta, there will be "circle" which connects Tiruttani, Nellore and Tirupathi road. Do take the Renigunta byepass which is the Tirupathi - Chittoor road. This is also bad due to incompletion. Need to take a right turn at the Tirupathi-Tiruchanur road. Here NHAI is constructing an overbridge on the byepass road.

Note: Railway overbridge construction is going on the Renigunta - Tirupathi road and one need to do a lot of Detour and the connecting road is very bad. No need to tell about the daily market roads of Renigunta. So better avoid entering into Renigunta town.

It took me 5 hr 15 minutes including traffic jams, breaks and reached thirumala at 9.45 pm. May be it is a bit of slow driving from my side to avoid sudden speed breakers and also belly scrapping of my Figo.

Started back at 8 AM in Tirupathi and reached Redhills at 11.30 AM. Reached home at 12.25 PM via Maduravoyal byepass.

• This is the better road to reach Tirupathi till the Tiruvallur- Tiruttani expansion is completed.
• Need to negotiate heavy Truck traffic
• Biggest nuisance is the speed breaker. Some are very big.
• Potholes are there after some big humps. Need to be careful.
• Avoid entering into Renigunta till the ROB on the Tirupathi road is completed.
• The distance covered from TNagar to Tirumala is 205 Kms which is 30kms more than Tiruttani road.
• One cannot do a stress free driving continously 10-15 kms due to speed breakers and road condition.
• Best part is between Tada and Pannagemedu on the NH5
• One cab driver confirmed this is best available road to Tirupathi now.
• Have done many one day trips via Tiruttani road and had darshan in time. This may not be possible now due to uncertain road conditions and extra distance.
• Better avoid night journey and have buffer time to reach well before darshan reporting time.

[RSUDARSANAN]

Drove to Tirupathi, with Senior citizen's in tow, on Monday - 19th Nov'12

Thanks to RGK for all the route inputs enabling a divine drive. Started from Kilpauk Garden @ 5.30 am. Took the New Avadi road to Padi junction and turned right onto Jawarharlal Nehru Road to access NH 5 at Madhavaram.

At the Chennai bye-pass junction, observed the bottle neck due to parked / crawling trucks in the merge happening from the service road to NH 5.

The drive to Tada junction was smooth save for diversions for the underconstruction fly over enroute. Truck traffic was heavy a common feature on all Inter-State borders.

The road Tada to Kalahasti is very smooth with scenic vistas. Plenty of unmarked speed breakers but predictable when the road passes through villages. Alertness is the key.

Kalahasti town driving was a nightmare with narrow congested roads. We had no choice as it was our breakfast halt which we had at MGM Grand Hotel.

From the Hotel accessed the Nayudapettah - Renigunta Highway via a makeshift bund across the river. It's a wide road, with heavy traffic interspersed with speed breakers and some budding potholes..

Reached thirumala at 10 am, thanks to an unscheduled bio-break @ Tirupati town resulting in missing that Senior Citizens batch. Next batch only at 3 pm so got delayed. The devotees crowd at Tirumala is just growing year by year.

Started back at 5.30 pm from Tirumala, a quick refreshment break @ Bhima's in Tirupathi and reached Kilpauk Gardens at 10 pm.

Byepass Kalahasti town as suggested by RGK and it's a good drive for all those seeking Lord Balaji's blessings.

[VW2010]

Guys,

Just did this route last friday.

Stick to Redhills - Tada -Naidupet - Tirupathi - Tirumala.

Redhills to Tada - This is the slowest session of this route. Too many diversions and constructions. Max average is around 45-50kmph.

Tada - Naidupet - This is the fastest stretch. Can average around 75kmph. Max speed - Safe max - 100, the rest is your need to test your chances with mr Yama.

Naidupet to Kalahasti (By pass) - Really WIDE roads. Can average around 60-75kmph. Max speed - 80-90kmph. Lots of speed breakers. Just be vigilant for the roads are wide with no center line or side line markers in various stretches.

Kalahasti to Tirupathi - Similarly wide roads with moderate traffic. Pretty good to average around 50-60kmph.

Tirupathi to Tirumala - Best stretch ever made. 2 lane upto tirumala. Butter smooth road with educated bus drivers who will let you pass at the right place. 22kms can be covered in less than 20 minutes without even pushing the car.

Take it easy for this road is scenic and enjoy the fresh smell of fog and forest.

Started at 445 near Tambaram - Reached Tirumala around 9-915.

Return journey was much faster. Tirumala to Tirupathi - Take it easy as it has lots of hair pin and is the old route. You cannot make massive time trying to over speed. Instead take it easy.

Once you reach tirupathi take the right route towards renigunta. One route takes you through a railway crossing and reniguta market. Road is fine except for the market and crossing. In fact this road was good till the gate that we decided not to return to the road we took while coming.

Once we reached renigunta we took the right route to reach naidupeta.

Overall we started at 245pm..took an hour lunch break at Bhima's(how can we miss this). Took a wrong route. Post tada parked the car and slept for 30-45 minutes.

30 minute or so delay near gummidipundi because of traffic.

With all these delays, we still reached tamabaram around 715 which meant the return trip was much faster

[RoadTripper]

Hi!

We're planning on visiting Tirupati tomorrow. We intend to start @ 4 am tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb 19th) from Perungudi, OMR. What's the best route? I've got a car with poor GC and I'm okay if I need to drive an additional distance to protect the car's chassis! While Tiruvallur-Tiruttani route would be shorter considering my starting point, I prefer Tada route (which I'd taken 3+ years back). Please help me with stage by stage directions

Also, does any one have an idea on the Rs. 300 ticket (Sheegra Darshan) - in terms of counter and time to be buffered in this queue? I'd read on a couple of websites that there are specific timings for the counter (for instance: 8 am until 2 pm on Tuesdays).

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

[manavdotcom]

Go via kalahasti. The route via Thiruvallur/Thirutanni is all under 4 Laning and too many diversions and bad roads.This is update as of 2 weeks back.

[aks_karthik]

You can take Tada - Kalahasthi route. I had taken this route last October.
The road is good and has a diversion at Kalahasthi.
Check the attached Google Maps.

[RoadTripper]

Thanks AKS Karthik and Manav

Here's a relatively detailed update:

• We were at Perungudi Toll Plaza at 4:05 am
• Reached Padi flyover at 4:28 am (went via Kotturpuram, TTK Rd, Gemini, Nungambakkam, New Avadi Rd), roughly 33 KM
• Slowed down towards Kolathur juntion and took the wrong left to Red Hills (actually the next junction would've been straight onto the 4 lane Rd)
• There are too many diversions due to expansion/ flyover construction - largely between Gummidipoondi bye-pass and Tada. We were able to do an average speed of 50Kmph as most of these diversions were very poorly marked. One of them is a concrete barrier with just one reflector - please drive very carefully in this section if driving when it is sun down (we were passing this stretch between 450-530 am)
• From Tada, there's a left (signpost about 50m ahead) that goes into Kalahasti - it's a SH and road is in good condition for 80-90% of the stretch (some of the approaches near the culverts and some hamlets are terrible, got to slow down). It was very foggy and we were able to maintain an average of 60-65kmph until Kalahasti (reached by 625 am). The # of speed breakers have reduced to what I'd seen earlier, but almost all of them are unmarked and do not have a warning signpost ahead of them.
• From Kalahasti, the route to Tirupati is simple, it is about 30-35 Km (roughly) and we were at Maurya for breakfast at 7:10 am. Good roads though there are no medians. Left from Maurya around 7:30 am.
• We reached Tirumala at 8:10 am and joined the Rs. 300 (Sheegra Darshan Queue) at about 8:35 am, being a Tuesday, this queue is a bit slow (realized it much later) and there are some boards that mention it could take upto 6 hours in this queue on Tue & Wed (this is due to Laghu Darshanam on these 2 days). We were able to get into the temple around 12:15 pm and were back in the car around 1:10 pm.
• Reached Bhimas Paradise by 1:40 pm (on the highway to Madras, take the left at the fly over after passing by Srinivasa Pilgrim Center) and left from there at 2:10 pm.
• Return leg: 3 pm at Kalahasti, 4 pm at Tada, 4:50 pm at Padi flyover, 5:50 pm at Perungudi.
• Interestingly, the Padi - Tirupati stretch took us about the same time in both directions (2 hours and 45 min approx).

[balajird]

Good to know road tripper, I went to Tirupathi between 20 and 21st February. Took the Thirutani route (wrong decision) and had the worst drive, roads are horrible in some places, too many diversions and had a tough time in getting to Tirupathi. While coming back, took the Kalahasthi - Tada route and it was a breeze.

Tada route recommended for those who want to go to Tirupathi by car.

[RoadTripper]

Originally Posted by balajird

Good to know road tripper, I went to Tirupathi between 20 and 21st February. Took the Thirutani route (wrong decision) and had the worst drive, roads are horrible in some places, too many diversions and had a tough time in getting to Tirupathi. While coming back, took the Kalahasthi - Tada route and it was a breeze.

Tada route recommended for those who want to go to Tirupathi by car.

Hi Balajird

I did check here and most of them recommended this route (Red Hills - Tada-Kalahasti), I'd taken this route last in 2009 so wasn't sure if things may have got worse. In 2009 the Tada-Kalahasti stretch was terrible because of the # of speed breakers and to make matters worse, I drove past this stretch dusk towards sun down. Even now there are quite a few, however, I feel they've removed a few of them. The one thing that hasn't changed is that there are no warning signposts at all, perhaps one or two that were erroneously erected

From what I've heard, the Tiruvallur route is good only until after Tiruvallur town (NH 4 approach).

It does appear that the NH5 route is the best option currently (Red Hills - Tada) and then state highway to Kalahasti @ Tada.

[pypkmsrikanth]

I had made a trip to Tirupati last weekend, onward was Padi - Redhills - Periyapalayam - Uthukottai - Puthur - Tirupathi - Tirumala. The road is 4 laned except for Periyapalayam town till the turn off to SIPCOT Industrial area after which it is a good 2 lane road all the way upto Puthur, though the curvy nature with lots of speed breakers mean you cannot do high speeds. The Puthur - Tiruprati stretch is under construction with quite a few diversions though it is in much better shape than a couple of months back. After Vadamalaipet I took the diversion via Pudi, Tiruchanur to reach Chittoor byepass road, was an easy drive all the way from Vadamalaipet till Tirupati.

Started at 8:15 AM from home reached Tirumala at 12:25 PM with a break fast break in between and 10 minutes at the Alipiri toll.

Return was via Tada, Kalahasti as I was concerned about driving late night in the Tirupati - Puthur stretch. Started from Tirumala at 9 PM reached home at 1:15 AM with close to 45 minutes break at Bhimas for dinner. The drive was quite peaceful all the way with Kalahasti town having little traffic at that time to slow down progress.

Both the above routes are comfortable drives though once Puthur - Tirupati stretch is ready I would prefer going via Periyapalayam as it is shorter with lesser traffic as overtaking is quite difficult in the Kalahasti - Tirupati stretch with heavy lorry traffic at most times of the day.

[ravib]

Friends,

I need to travel from Nagari to Madras (Vadapalani) this friday night. Starting time is approx. 8:30/9 pm (unavoidable due to family function).

Can some one recommend the best route with good roads (especially for night driving), as i am traveling with my 1.5 year kid and family.

Google maps suggests below routes:
1) Nagari-Nagalapuram-Periyapalayam-Redhills-Koyambedu-Vadapalani
2) Nagari-Thiruthani-Thiruvallur-Koyambedu-Vadapalani
3) Nagari-Thiruthani-Arakkonam-Sriperumbudur-Koyambedu-Vadapalani

In Last march'2012, I drove in route-2 from madras to Thiruthani and road widening was in progress, so it was horrible to drive after sunset. So in return journey, i took route-3 (Tiruttani-Arakkonam-Sriperumbudur-Koyambedu) route which was better but longer in distance.

How are the road conditions now. Please suggest.

Thanks
-Ravi

[pypkmsrikanth]

The road from Nagalapuram to Red Hills is in good condition and you should not have any problem driving in the dark. I am not sure of the condition between Nagari & Nagalapuram, in the worst case what you could do is go upto Puttur and then go to Nagalapuram, it should add only about 10 kms more to the distance.

The stretch does not have much facilities in terms of stops etc. so ensure you finish your dinner before you start. Though it could be lonely there is absolutely no issues in terms of safety.

[raju2512]

The best option for a one day visit is the APTDC volvo service starting at 5 am from T Nagar. They arrange everything (breakfast/lunch/darshan) and you return to Chennai by 9-10 pm after visiting Tiruchanur also.