[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

This is good news about the Vypin Island bridge. Does it start at the end of Marine Drive? And how much distance does it cut en route Paravur?

Vypeen bridges start from the newly reclaimed land behind the High Court. If you are coming from the Park Avenue / Shanmugham Road side, just go straight, straight, straight. If you are coming from Kaloor - Banerjee Road you turn right at the end of Banerjee road. The vypeen bridges are 3 in numbers, mostly in a straight line - that is 2 or 3 KM of a straight line!!!

Ernakulam - Parur via vypeen is a good 6 KM more than Edappally - Varapuzha - Parur route. I am just back after going up to Irinjalakuda. I took the Vypeen - Cherai Devaswom Nada (turn Right) - Parur (reaches KMK junction) - turn left - Kodungallur - go round the temple - Irinjalakuda road while going, and the normal Parur - Varapuzha - Edappally route on return. The savings is in form of time because you avoid the city jams, Edappally railway gate etc, entirely. The Vypeen Cherai road is mostly an almost straight stretch; with umpteen number of small, short bridges (10 M or so). This area is fishermen's territory, so be very careful while driving here. Do go beyond 50-60 Kmph.

The Kodungallur Irinjalakuda road is in excellent condition - but look out for the rogue cyclist or careless pedestrian.

If you are going all way to Trichur, this route saves you further time since you avoid the Ollur road.

Steeroid, any reason why you did not take the Irinjalakuda route? (Hmmm.. I think Thriprayar route saves you from entering Trichur city - turn left as you get down the Poonkunnam/patturaikkal Rail overbridge?? I am not sure.)

On way back, I (hmmm.. the driver, actually, I was on the back seat, as usual) took the Varapuzha route up to the Edappally railway gate. It had developed a snag, and there where vehicles up to the fuel station at the turning on the otherside of temple (varapuzha side). That is about one Km. Luckily, we were able to manage a U turn and took the Cheranellore-chittoor Road, only to get caught in a terrible jam at Vaduthala!!

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Steeroid, any reason why you did not take the Irinjalakuda route? (Hmmm.. I think Thriprayar route saves you from entering Trichur city - turn left as you get down the Poonkunnam/patturaikkal Rail overbridge?? I am not sure.)

Your assumption is right. With the IJKDA route you have to pass through the main market area in Trichur, which is very frustrating. If you turn left at Triprayar for Trichur, you end up at West Fort, from where you can get on to Shornur Road in a jiffy. I also take this route because my apartment in Trichur is in the West Fort area.

BTW arent you coming to tomorrow's ride out to Vagamon?

[lateshnair]

Hi Everybody,

I need to go urgently to thrissur tomorrow early morning. I want to take bangalore - mysore- gundelpet route.

Can you please advice me the best route after gundelpet till thrissur and the condition on the road.

Thanks

[nutmello]

hi
take right turn after gundalpet town towards sultan batthery.batthery to vythri ( waynad dt) and go down hill.about 15km before calicut, stop and ask for calicut medical college road. you will have to take a right turn from NH and go about 5 kms ( you will pass infront of medical college) and you will get toll road which will avoid calicut city. excellent 4 lane high way which will take you very quickly to ramanattakar and join the NH again. continue to thrissur.
with all honesty, however you drive, mysore to thrissur will need 5 hours.less than this is not possible unless you drive like crazy.calicut medical college to thrissur ( however you drive) minimum 3 hours.
so usually when i drive to cochin from mysore, i take one break at thrissur and next day reach cochin.its more sensible to drive this way.

[mail4ajo]

The stretch between Walayar and Kudranmala is still bad. Any updates?

[Steeroid]

Guys

The roads in Kerala are NOT as bad as are being made out. Spent a week driving through the north of Kerala and I hadnt come across ANY bad road.

No I havent driven down NH47 between Trichur and Palghat, but other than this the NH 17, Cochin-Trichur bit of NH 47, the Trichur-Shornur-Palghat route, the Sabarimala route from Cochin via Kottayam or via Kuthattukulam-Ponkunnam-Palai-Erumeli, or various other sundry routes are ALL in very good condition.

The only bit I am not sure about is the Trichur to Coimbatore stretch which I am told is still just patched up.

Rest of the state is fine - I didnt feel ANYTHING on the roads.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by nutmello

with all honesty, however you drive, mysore to thrissur will need 5 hours.less than this is not possible unless you drive like crazy.calicut medical college to thrissur ( however you drive) minimum 3 hours.

Calicut to Thrissur = 2 hours at night (passing Calicut at about 8 pm), less depending on Traffic conditions.

Mysore - Trichur = 4+something hours is possible. Mysore - Cochin in 6 hours definitely possible.

[speedzak]

One of the worst roads in the country right now is the road between KASARGOD and Talasseri. There maybe more bad ones but this one is something to be experienced. Avoid it as much as possible.

Originally Posted by mail4ajo

The stretch between Walayar and Kudranmala is still bad. Any updates?

I'm not sure when you say still bad. Have you gone by recently? cos they had patched up the hilly area after walayar which looked like it had been shelled by US army. After the patch work it was reasonable you can do 60-70 on those roads safely if the traffic is thin.

This was when i came back from coimby last week 23rd or so. but it was already beginning to deteriorate so dont know now.

the area after walayar is rough, but they are not craters and most of these patches can be driven straight through without any maneuvering/course corrections. again, this is 6 day old news. so any more recent updates will be nice.

[kibi]

I did this route last weekend. The roads are much better now.There are no vehicle sucking craters in the Palakkad Thrissur road Took me about 11 hrs with a lot of luggage.

[hellstar]

Originally Posted by kibi

I did this route last weekend. The roads are much better now.There are no vehicle sucking craters in the Palakkad Thrissur road Took me about 11 hrs with a lot of luggage.

11 hrs from blore to trichur ?

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by hellstar

11 hrs from blore to trichur ?

I did this section on 26/11/07, the details:

Palakkad BP 0915 am- 0km, Coimbatore BP toll plaza - 35kms 940 am, Avanashi - 90km 1110 am, Mettur-204km 0115 pm, halt for 2 and half hours with relatives, start at 340 Pm, Dharmapuri 265kms 440 pm, Krishna giri goll gate--317 km 530 pm, after that Bangalore-415 km 820 pm due to the heavy traffic block. I would say Palakkad to Hosur tollgate entry it would take you about 6/7 hours non stop, with stops it would take you about 8/9 hours. Add another 2 hours from Palakkad to Trichur, it should take about 11 hours.

The road from Palakkad to Coimbatore is much better now, not the rim-braking section it was earlier. There is a small 2/3 KM section near Kuthiran where the roads are bad, it would have been repaired by now, not a major issue.

From Trichur up to Trivandrum also the road I drove through was OK, though the traffic from Trichur to Cochin is pretty heavy and slow throught the year, this 70 KM should take anything from 3-5 hours.

I drove a scorpio, so many of the potholes / bumpy sections were easier; with a medium car/ seden it would slow you down a bit, but not a great deal.

Happy Driving,

--Ramky
---------

[kibi]

No 11 hrs from Blr to Cochin

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by kibi

No 11 hrs from Blr to Cochin

Hai KIBI,

Guess you're a fast driver.

Just curious, what car were you driving and what was the time?

Early morning out of Bangalore and late night into Kerala, from Palakkad to EKM, you would be able to save a lot of time.

Happy Driving,

--Ramky

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

though the traffic from Trichur to Cochin is pretty heavy and slow throught the year, this 70 KM should take anything from 3-5 hours.

3-5 hours????? Shouldnt take more than 2 hours MAX. I regularly do Cochin - Shornur (where my parents live, which is another 35-40 kms from Trichur) in just under 2 hours.

And Bangalore-Cochin is an 8 hour drive if you push it on a regular day, 7+ hours (Zak and I have both done this) on a holiday/sunday. 9 or 10 hours if you do it via NH 212 + Nh 17 (via Wyanad, Calicut).