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Muvattupuzha-Kolenchery full of potholes unlike never before. But, still manageable. During evenings especially Friday it is better to avoid route via Infopark. What I do is to check Gmaps for traffic condition and choose either Muvattupuzha-Kolenchery-Infopark route OR Muvattupuzha-Veettoor-Nellad-Mangalathunada-Mazhuvannoor-Kadayirippu north-Pulinchod-Pallikkara-Kakkanad. You can also take Kadayirippu-Pallikkara route from Kolenchery Junction. The journey between Muvattupuzha & Ernakulam peripheries are absolutely time taking due to heavy passenger car traffic as well as bad roads.

I'm planning to drive from Madikeri to Kochi next week. Would appreciate any info on which would be the best route in terms of road quality.

This is what GMaps is showing

Drove down from BLR to Ernakulam on 31st Aug on my Honda City. Started at 5:45AM and reached Ernakulam at 5PM. Faced terrible rains from Chalakudy to Anagamaly and the traffic blocks thereafter. Never drove in such rains before and for around 30 mins the visibility was almost nil.

Add to that, encountered water logging just after Chalakudy where some road work was going on and vehicles were sent through one lane only. Water level was almost near to the doors which was bit scary and add to that gear wasnt slotting in when I tried to put it in 1st. Luckily I was able to wade through that section on 2nd gear by keeping the engine at high revs. There were no damages by Gods Grace and car performed flawlessly through the entire journey.

Next day after attending a function in Kochi drove down to my native, Kollam. Started at 5PM and reached Kollam around 9:45PM with some breaks in between. This 140Km was the most tiring as usual due to single lane plus heavy traffic all the way. Seems like work has started in acquiring the land to make this section of NH wider as I saw the same happening post Alapuzha. Due to the heavy rains some of the sections from Ekm to Kollam are in bad shape, so one has to drive carefully in order to avoid some surprise potholes.

Return journey from Kollam to BLR via Ekm-Cmbtre-Salem was done on 4th Sep at 5:15AM and thanks to God, reached home in BLR at 6:45PM before the notorious downpour that brought the city to a standstill. Highway from Thrissur to BLR was good barring the L&T byepass of Coimbatore which is very dangerous due to the reckless driving and single lane.

Did a near-overnighter between Bangalore and Calicut via Salem-Coimbatore yesterday (8/9). The only new thing to report is that the Mundur-Kongad-Perinthalmanna connector road (KL SH 53) to bypass Mannarkkad town is getting 4-laned/dual-carriageway-ed. From Mundur for a long stretch widening is completed and divider is installed / getting installed (the divider is made of interlocking concrete blocks). Many culverts are being rebuilt. Beyond that land acquisition is done and either buildings are being demolished or plain surface is being created. I think the work loses steam beyond Mangode. There is no sign of any work to reconstruct the Thootha river bridge. But still, a welcome development.

A quick Google search brought this up:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...le32745087.ece

In practical terms, this road should be avoided during daytime I'd imagine. There are spots with only one lane and those could lead to pile-ups. Given that NH 966 is also getting redeveloped I don't know which the best daytime Calicut-Palakkad route is (Google way trying to get me to take a route that hits NH 66 at Valanchery; I ignored that suggestion).

Last night while returning to Trivandrum from Nagercoil side at 930, noted several dense red lines in google maps from Marthandam and beyond till Parassala. So we took the road to the left at Mandakadal and set the map to Poovar. It proved lucky. The roads are narrow, so this stretch is useful probably only late night or early morning. Occasional trucks and tippers too were using it. The road condition is so-so for the first half. By Karungal it becomes good. Took about an hour to reach Poovar from Mandakadal, thanks to near zero traffic. Twists and turns plenty, but can trust the map.

Must be the impact of the Bharat Jodo yatra. Thanks for the heads up. Adding this to the list of things to check before embarking on a road trip. :-)

https://goo.gl/maps/z8fH2ZXhCwgsyzrx9
This is the route, forgot to provide previously. Goes via Eraniel, Thingal Nagar, Karungal and reaches Kaliyikkavilai- Poovar road at Pazhaya Uchakkada. Buses too ply at stretches, so likely to be busy during daytime. Overall narrow, and I recollect that a short stretch, near Kollamkode perhaps, is like a bottleneck for two way big vehicles. May be suitable for an occasional exigency along regular NH, at off-peak hours.

Hi Members,

Planning a drive from Coimbatore to Wayanad next week. Any suggestions on the routes and how are the ghat routes? I see 3 options from the threads,

1. CBE-palakkad-mannarkad-thiruvambady-Wayanad (default option)
2. CBE-mettupalayam-Ooty-sultan bathery-Wayanad
3. CBE-Sathyamangalam-chamarajanagar-sultan bathery-Wayanad

Which is the best in terms of drivability? And how are the ghat sections especially.

Wayanad is an entire district, Sulthan Bathery is a town in that district (a municipality, assembly constituency and taluk HQ). There is no one location called Wayanad. Depending on where you want to go within the district, the routes could change.

From Coimbatore I imagine going to Gudalur via Ooty and then taking either the Noolpuzha-Sultan Bathery route or Devala-Meppadi route depending on the final destination is probably the shortest and without travel restrictions. #1 is strictly avoidable, and #3 is unnecessarily circuitous.

Thank you for the directions. Since i am going with a few of my friends, planning to book a resort near Vythiri.

If anyone has done the Coimbatore- Ooty - Gudalur - Devala - Meppadi route recently, can tell how the routes are? Anything to take notice of?

I Will post a detailed note once am back.

Understand the Gudalur - Nadugani stretch is in bad shape. Did some enquiries about this last week as I was in Coonoor and had to do the Coonoor - Calicut stretch last week and was informed that even the Vazhikadavu ghat (Nadugani - Vazhikadavu) sections were bad.

Ended up driving to Cochin and taking a cab to Calicut. Don’t know about the Devala route though but the rains may have damaged the roads there too.

Had traveled a part of the route Gmaps is showing you (joined your route at Pantheeramkavu, Kozhikode) 2 weeks ago from Vythiri to Kochi, can vouch for it. Road condition is excellent almost all along but some spots could have traffic depending on the time you travel & also widening works on NH66.

Oh wow. Coonoor-Cochin and onwards to Calicut? The Coonoor-Manjur-Mulli-Agali-Mannarkkad and then onwards to Calicut didn't come into consideration at all? I am itching to drive through those roads. :-)

Mulli route is closed for traffic to/from KL side since a few months. Is it open now?

True, it was a round about route and I could have taken the Palakkad - Calicut route too as I was driving through Coimbatore. Reasons for taking the cab were (a) I wasnt sure of the impact of the 6 laning (deviations / bad stretches) as I hadnt driven through that route in a while and (b) it was raining heavily (c) was driving at night which made the deviations and bad roads treacherous and (d) had to start back to Cochin early morning after reaching late at night so would not have been properly rested. So didnt want to take the risk. In the end it was the right decision as the roads had a lot of traffic and the rains impacted visibility but the cab driver was very good. (Safe driving practices, no fast driving, no sudden braking etc).

I did check on the Manjoor route but after Covid, the incidence of wild animals have increased so the locals generally advise to avoid deserted stretches for sometime.