[ranjitp1]

We did route B(Ottapalam-Mangalamkunnu-Cherplassery-P'mana-Angadipuram) recently and the roads are in fairly good conditions,nothing alarming,they range from being good to excellent.We also did Mangalamkunnu-Mundur-Kongad-Palakkad-CBE-BLR-HYD but ofcourse this was done in early July.I dont think any stretch could go really bad on that section.From Cherplassery it would take you an hour to 90mins to the temple.Roads in and around Pattambi are traditionally non-motorable during the monsoons,I cant comment on it has been this year though.

Enroute from Palakkad to A'puram,you could take a short detour at Mangalamkunnu(the road goes through this place)and visit the temple(the same temple which is shown in most malayalam movies that are shot in & around Ottapalam(devasuram etc),plus this village has the distinction of having the most number of elephants in kerala(last count it was around 30-40)

[joecherian]

Anyone on the road driving to Kerala tomorrow ? I had initial plans to drive down to my home town (Manimala , on NH7) but, now due to some last minute changes, will be driving down to Cochin. Hence , would like to know whether I can see some BHPians who are starting around the same time (tomorrow mng around 5 from BLR) ?

[aargee]

@Joecherian - Sorry pal; I'm in on Saturday early morning; Good that you're starting Friday early morning, because, I get a feeling that we've so many people driving towards KL on Saturday morning.

[joecherian]

Originally Posted by aargee

@Joecherian - Sorry pal; I'm in on Saturday early morning; Good that you're starting Friday early morning, because, I get a feeling that we've so many people driving towards KL on Saturday morning.

So many people driving together can be fun too !. Anyways happy drive and Happy Onam !!

[aargee]

Originally Posted by joecherian

So many people driving together can be fun too !. Anyways happy drive and Happy Onam !!

More than fun, it is more than safe; its a secured feeling that all of us can get when driving together; infact I felt like starting a thread on this stating are you starting from Chennai/BLR towards KL this Saturday with probably a quick meets at Thoppur or so & then drive our way. But wasn't too sure if there would be any responses OR my assumption of many ppl driving towards KL being incorrect.

Wish you a happy Onam too.

[mallumowgli]

Guys planning to cross Walayar check post on Friday evenings, beware of the huge traffic jams due to Lorry pile up! All Fridays are generally bad, but next week being onam, it is going to be worse.

And wish you all a HAPPY ONAM

@argee : Sorry, saw your post just now. I've not travelled by route a. But the route b mentioned by you is an ok route. Roads are not very good, but neither are they bad. Advantage over the NH (Palakkad-Mundur-Perinthalmanna) is that on this route b. the distance is 10 kms lesser and the there are less twists and turns. But road surfacing is slightly uneven, and it will be difficuilt to cross 70, but maintaining average 60kmph over the stretch wont be difficuilt due to less traffic

[Speed-Gladiator]

Originally Posted by aargee

More than fun, it is more than safe; its a secured feeling that all of us can get when driving together; infact I felt like starting a thread on this stating are you starting from Chennai/BLR towards KL this Saturday with probably a quick meets at Thoppur or so & then drive our way. But wasn't too sure if there would be any responses OR my assumption of many ppl driving towards KL being incorrect.

Wish you a happy Onam too.

I will be driving to KL from BLR on saturday morning, My plan is to start from BLR by 3 AM, as my route is different, via Valpari.

Wish you a Happy Onam tooo.

Thanks
S-G

[jeeva]

I will be driving down from Bangalore to Wayanad on Saturday morning.
Planning to leave by around 2 am.
Someone taking the same route?
Wish you all a very happy Onam!

[ramsnavy]

Hi guys,

Had been to Kerala in the 1st week of August. Just wanted to give an update on the road conditions from Bangalore to Alleppey.

The route taken while going was Whitefield - NICE (entered at Electronic City) - Mysore - Bandipur - Nilambur - Guruvayoor - Ernakulam - Alleppey. The roads overall are in pretty good condition, excpet that once you enter Kerala the raods are pretty narrow and your average spped takes a beating. Avoid taking the Nice road from Electronic City as one needs to take a detour immediately after the 1st toll booth. The detour is like an offroading experience as there was no road as such on which to drive. You can re-join the NICE road at Gotikere. So its better to take the NICE road from Bannerghata road after Gotikere.

While returning we came via Changnaserry - Tekdi - Theni - Dindigul - Salem - Krishnagiri - Hosur - Whitefiled. This is a faster route although a longer one by about 70 kms. However the raods are in excellent condition and once you reach Dindigul, you are onto the 4laned NH-7 and can easily floor your accelerators.

So its better to take this route in case you are visiting the south of Kerela.

Regards,
Rams

[kavu75]

I have taken the following route on 20th August.

Bangalore - Salem - Namakkal - Dindigul - Periyakulam - Theni - Cumbum - Kumily - Mundakkayam - Erumely - Ranni - Pathanamthitta – pandalam

Started from Bangalore at 5 am, excellent highway drive till Dindigul. Taken turn from Dindigul by pass at 9.45 am.
Dindigul - Kumily Overall good roads till Kumily, Most of the stretch we can drive at at 80-90, except on small towns. But some bad stretch just 2-3 km before reaching Kumily.
Took a lunch break at Kumily at 12-45pm.
Again started from Kumily at 2.15pm, then roads started showing its Kerala face. Some stretch are bad, but manageable. But some really bad stretch between Erumely - Ranni - Pathanamthitta.
Reached home at 5pm after a small tea break.
Overall good experience.
Again traveling back to Bangalore on 25th August, same route.

[Twiny]

I did BLR-COK through NH7-NH47 Started on 20th Fri, 3:30pm from Marathahalli and reached Kalamassery by 1am with ~45mnts break in between. ~10km stretch around Kuthiran had lots of potholes, and luckily though slow moving, traffic was somewhat disciplined there.

[aargee]

Y'days update
Road from Palakkad to Thrissur is somewhat bad, could maintain average speed between 40-60 Kms only. Yes, there were potholes, not sure on the areas though. Just to indicate the timings...
Coimbatore - Nr Rajabhojanam - started by 13:34
Thrissur - 15:34 (precise 2 hours & little fast driving but not a maniac)

[ranjitp1]

RG,Thats pretty decent timings.The official run time that is expected to be maintained by KSRTC buses between Palakkad Depot & Thrissur Depot is 75mins(1hr,15mins)

[ampere]

Originally Posted by ramsnavy

Avoid taking the Nice road from Electronic City as one needs to take a detour immediately after the 1st toll booth. The detour is like an offroading experience as there was no road as such on which to drive. You can re-join the NICE road at Gotikere. So its better to take the NICE road from Bannerghata road after Gotikere.

Ram, Just saw this other post, which says, its much better now at the BG road detour. How did you go? Did you take the road close to the lake? Or the one aside the main NICE road?

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post2038325

[sbkumar]

Originally Posted by aargee

Y'days update
Road from Palakkad to Thrissur is somewhat bad, could maintain average speed between 40-60 Kms only. Yes, there were potholes, not sure on the areas though. Just to indicate the timings...
Coimbatore - Nr Rajabhojanam - started by 13:34
Thrissur - 15:34 (precise 2 hours & little fast driving but not a maniac)

Just wanted to update with my experience.

Did this section, Thrissur to Cbe yesterday afternoon. It took around 2 hrs 45 mins from Mannooty ( not sure about the spelling, its the place where we join the NH-47 from thrissur) to the start of L&T byepass in CBE with a little aggressive driving. The roads are really bad on some sections, more suited for off-road vehicles than normal sedans and traffic was bad, but I heard that's normal for this section. You have to tackle both the traffic as well as the potholes which spoils such a scenic route otherwise. Thought about taking Vadakkenshery - Pollachi route but didn't know the condition of roads there too and hence dropped the plan.

Apart from this, Alleppey - Cochin (Vytttila) - Cochin Airport around 70 kms took about 2 hrs. It was when there was reasonably less traffic. The roads are average, not as bad as the thrissur-palakkad section. Traffic on the cochin bye pass was bad.

Cochin Airport to Thrissur ( Ollur) (50 kms approx) took around 2+ Hrs due to heavy traffic, rains and congestion due to construction activities on this stretch. Road is good in some stretch and average in others. No potholes that I remember of in this stretch.

Experienced heavy traffic on the section from Cbe ( End of L&T bye pass, karumathampatti) to the start of 4-lane highway (singampuli, after avinashi-perumanallur) in the evening. Very slow drive ( average was around 30 kmph I guess). The road condition was decent but heavy container and lorry traffic made it really slow.

On the whole NH-47 ( avinashi to any place in kerala) is not the route where you can estimate your travel time to any degree of accuracy . For people who drive a lot on TN highways now, it's back to the bad old days couple of years back when there were similar two-lane highways.