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I thought I'd jus stick to the highways. And the WagonR is not exactly wat you'd wanna be driving throught the ghats right!

Well, I used to drive my 10 year old Santro on this route. The roads in NH47 route was very bad and breaks your back in a small car, at least up to Thrissur. After that it is heavy traffic that bogs you down.

Ghat sections, on a small car with no load is actually easier than navigating through kilometres of potholed, undivided, high traffic roads in Kerala, any day.

Whenever I go to any place in Kerala, I always plan in such a way that I have to drive the least distance inside that state. I would never ever dream of going up to Kottayam on NH47 and MC road compared to the excellent roads through Dindigul and Theni. My wife is from Trivandrum and when we go there, I drive all the way on NH7 up to Nagercoil and turn back to Tvm. I can reach there in less than 12 hours compared to 16 hours through NH47.

Hello all

Please update on latest road condition and travel time of NH49 between Madurai and Kochi. I am planning to drive solo over the weekend. Google maps suggests diverting from theni onto SH40 via Katappana joining Muvatupuzha. The other option is going via walayar - palakkad which seems considerably longer. My only objective is to get to kochi in the shortest time possible:)

All help will be greatly appreciated!

Travelled a couple of weeks back on the Krishnagiri - Salem - Coimbatore - Palakkad - Thrissur sector. Despite the rains in and around Salem, did good time on the road upto Avanashi. Some short stretches between Avanashi & Coimbatore have been widened and the slow moving vehicles which cause heavy delays on this stretch can be easily overtaken in patches. Once off the Coimbatore bye-pass be prepared to go very slow.

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Seriously suggest that you take Palakkad - Shoranur - Wadakancherry - Trichur route and bypass Kuthiran! Was advised by frequent travelers on this stretch to do this as the shoulders of the road have fairly deep trenches dug. In case a block happens then you get stuck for upto 6 or 8 hours with vehicles piled up ahead, beside and behind. You can't even get off the car because of the trenches.

Did both Kumily and Palaghat a week ago. The condition of both are comparable and not very bad now. Walayar-Palaghat-Trichur stretch is in much better shape now. Potholes are patched-up, so didn't encounter any major issues. On the Kumily stretch, around Cumbum-Theni the road doubling/realignment is just about starting up - so it is not all smooth drive, but with the sparse traffic on that road it is very much manageable. When driving down from Kumily, there are a few pothole ridden stretches before Kanjirapally.

Actually we went via Palaghat to Cochin and came back from Kottayam via Kumily. The GC of the Civic (in our convoy) was not at all an issue on both routes.

Some 5 kms before Kumily while coming from Kottayam and Kumily to Lower camp was in very very bad state when I did this stretch last time. Hope this is repaired now as you haven't noticed any issues there. Am I right?

There was one patch were I had to slowed down to near zero speeds in the Civic. I suppose we are referring to the same one here, but it was less than 100 meters and the rest of this stretch though pothole ridden was manageable. Btw, I vaguely remember waiting for opposite traffic to pass for a road patch work in progress, but not able to recollect where exactly this was - Kottayam-Kumily or the day earlier.

I did both the routes on Allepey trip on Oct 29th weekend. I went by Bangalore- Salem- Coimbatore-walayar-palaghat- Cochin-Allepey route and returned back via Allepey-Kottayam-Kumily-Theni- Dindigul-Salem-Bangalore.

Via Kottayam route is very scenic and lesser traffic compared to Via Coimbatore. Roads are mostly good except for bad patches around Kumily ( 20 kms). However I was stuck for 1.5 hrs due to flooding of road due heavy rain near vandiperiyar nr Kumily.

I will take the Kumily road if there are no rains.

Hi Geo , I just returned from Kottayam two days back through the same route. Yes , there quite a few deviations post Avinasi and some real bad pot holes about a km before you hit the Kerala border - But there is nothing which you should seriously be concerned about. Me too did a solo Blr- Ktym and back , and didnt feel fatigued at all , was driving a Ritz.

PM me if you need any assistance

Thanks a lot for all the replies!

I've got two more queries:

1. Will all the road side puncture wallas be open on a Sunday in case of an unfortunate event of two punctures?

2. And if for any reason my car breaks down, would there be road side assistance working on a Sunday?

Its sure that you can fine some puncture shops in NH47. No need to worry brother, just make sure that you have a spare tire and start.

Did Bangalore-Coimbatore-Palakkad-Coimbatore-Bangalore on the regular NH7-NH47 route last week. Here are the trip logs:







Distance Covered:897.4 Km
Petrol used:50 Litres
FE:17.9 Km/Litre

Some notes from the trip:
1.Found another option for break (has clean toilets) near Perundurai turnoff - Hotel Annalakshmi. Had only coffee but found quite a few people having a late breakfast here.
2.Chengapalli-Coimbatore road widening:
- Good progress on few stretches but one side not open yet.
- Noticed that new widened road will deviate diagonally to right before Gobi junction and diagonally to left before Tirupur junction before it merges with existing road.
- Watch out for crazy 2 wheelers and mini trucks, autos who come out of nowhere and sometimes go right across the road just in front of you !
- Private buses - lesser said the better ! They consider this stretch a 1 way so they will be coming right at you (in the opposite direction)
3. L&T Bypass - I heard it's being widended, did not try on this trip.
4. After L&T Bypass to Walayar road widening:
- work in progress, several bridges under construction lots of diversions, several potholes near the RTO check post and one village/settlment where road is narrow and there are several shops on both sides
- Escaped truck traffic in the early morning drive since most of them were parked on either side of the road
- Stuck in extremely slow moving truck traffic on the way back for about 10-15 minutes

Hotel Annalakshmi (Perundurai), Hotel Sre Aryas (Chandranagar), Hotel Selva Bhavan (Coimbatore)

You may expect relatively higher traffic around 27/11 between theni and kanjirappalli, since Sabarimala season will be starting by then.

Also traffic blocks can be expected due to accidents by dangerously driving cab/bus drivers to sabarimala.

Thanks mate! Guess i'll take the Coimbatore route and nurse my back when i reach Kottayam. Expecting to complete the drive in 12 hours including breaks. 0500 - 1700 hrs!