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[quote=DieselLover;5934859]Completed this trip over last weekend. Took Ekm-Kaduthuruthy-Pala-Ponkunnam-Kumily-Cumbum-Chinnamanur-Meghamalai for the onward journey. Started on Sunday morning 5 45AM and reached Woodbriar Bungalow by 1pm. Excellent road and very less traffic throughout. Stopped for breakfast at Indian Coffee House, Ponkunnam. Decent place with ample parking and rest rooms.

Had a nice stay at Woodbriar - good location, ambience, food and service. The only negative is the slight delay in serving food.

Stayed for a night at Thekkadi (KTDC Aranya Nivas ) on the way back. It is a very old property (right next to the boating point) but maintained very well. Good service and food but slightly expensive.

Checked out at 830AM and took Kumily-Kattappana-Cheruthony-Neriamangalm-Perumbavoor-Ekm route and reached home by 130PM. Again excellent road and very less traffic (on a weekday).

Thanks a lot!!

I see another route: Bangalore -> Salem -> Dindigul -> Tirumangalam -> Rajapalyam -> Tenkasi -> Thenmala -> Kottarakkara -> Kundara -> Bharanikavu -> Ashtamudi.

How would this be?

Thanks again,
Pratim

Now, this is the route I take from Blr to Kollam 95% of the time. As I speak, am driving down to Kollam tomorrow via this route.

You will find good restaurants throughout from Blr till Thirumangalam. Fewer restaurants from Thirumangalam to Aryankavu. Very few from Aryankavu to Punalur. But definitely not a deal breaker. The roads will be narrow and winding for close to 60 Kms between Aryankavu to Punalur and you wont be able speed or overtake much. With bit of care can be easily managed and wont trouble your co-passengers.

Again depending on the day there will good traffic from Punalur to Ashtamudi during the evening as you will reach Punalur around that time. The last bit will always take time.

This is a straight route all the way till you hit Aryankavu. There is road widening work happening from Tirumangalam till Rajapalyam, but wont trouble so much as some sections are open. Again factor in 13 hours atleast considering breaks and all.

You will find some good hotels near Madurai and Tirumangalam (Temple City, Anjappar ..)

Thank you!!

Wish you safe and enjoyable journey back home (assuming Kollam being your home town). Its always feel good to go back home.

Pratim.

Hello,

Planning to drive this Sunday early morning from Kollam to kochi and further to Guruvayur after a couple of hours at Kochi.
Any suggestions on the route, road conditions, good restaurants (vegetarian), thanks.

Hope you had a comfortable drive. Please share the overall traffic experiencein the stretch between Attibele to the south of Salem. I have a drive to BLR from Trivandrum next weekend and the Google maps sometimes suggest bizarre options avoiding NH44 !
Thanks in advance.

Hosur - Krishnagiri stretch is very unpredictable. I prefer to cover this stretch during early morning hours and never faced any issues but last week I got stuck for around 45 minutes at one of the diversions before shoolagiri, this was at 4:30 AM. So, keep some buffer time for this stretch.

This is one reason why I prefer the NH 844 from Hosur to Dharmapuri bypass, despite some diversions. Another option is to join that road from Attibele itself.

During the night and early morning hours, large trucks carrying windmill blades frequently travel through this area. To accommodate this, traffic around the Thoppur stretch is managed by the police, which caused us a delay of over 45 minutes around 5 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Yes, its a good option but I am not comfortable to take this route during early morning hours or after dark in the evening.

Had a little tiresome drive to Kollam on Saturday. Route taken was as below.

Blr (Old Airport Road) - Hosur - Rayakottai - Palacode - Dharmapuri - Salem - Dindigul - Tirumangalam - Rajapalayam - Shenkottai - Thenmala - Punalur - Kottarakara - Kollam.

Took 14 hours door to door including breaks for breakfast, lunch and one short one for tea/coffee. Started at 5:35AM and reached Kollam at 7:44PM. The last stretch from Kottarakara - Kollam of 25Kms took more than 1hr due to long weekend traffic. This was the most tiresome stretch.

Got stuck in Thoppur ghat for some 20 mins, near Salem (bypass construction) for another 20 mins, crossing Salem itself took some good amount of time due to traffic, got stuck near Thenmala Eco Resort due to some road blocks for 15 mins and then crawled all the way from Kottarakara to Kollam.

Hosur to Salem via Rayakottai was a good drive due to less traffic and some newly opened 4 lane highway.

Drove 207Kms from home to A2B at Rasipuram for breakfast break. This took around 4 hours.

Next 226Kms from A2B to Temple City Restaurant (for lunch) at Triumangalam - Rajapalyam road took around 2:45hrs. This was the fastest stretch.

From here to Puliyarai in Shenkottai (TN-KL border) around 143Kms took 2:43 hours.

And the last stretch from Puliyarai to my home in Kollam city, 85Kms took 3:10 hours. The slowest and the most tiresome.

Am able to provide this exact time due to the Bluelink app of Hyundai. It shows the drive time, idle time, Kms driven and the avg speed for each stretch.

Roads are good from Blr to Salem, but some roadworks and flyover constructions happening, that will slow you down. Excellent drive from Salem to Tirumangalam, roads are good throughout. From Tirumangalam to Rajapalyam, road widening happening big time, some small stretches are open and overall you cant speed here.

Roads are good from Puliyarai to Kollam, but the traffic is very heavy from Punalur to Kollam.
Only good thing was able to cross all toll booths pretty fast.

My feeling is drive in this stretch is never going to be easy for the rate at which the vehicles on the road is increasing to the rate at which the infra developments are happening. I always used to think when this stretch becomes 4/6 lane it would be faster, but I never see that happening as Blr to Salem is now choked, crossing Salem is a nightmare despite many flyovers, and the very heavy truck traffic. Hopefully Tirumangalam - Rajapalyam will become 4 laned in couple of years, but by that time I believe Salem Tirumanagalam stretch will become choked :). Hopefully Ernakulam to Trivandrum 4 lane will open as in due time, but Thrissur - Ernakulam is already choking.

Overall took 12:38hrs drive time for 661Kms and the remaining time of
1:22hrs for 3 breaks. Its still a very time consuming drive and one needs lot of patience and time to drive. I still venture out driving this stretch due to the passion, but its slowly diminishing after every one of those :)

Many many thanks for the detailed information. I share your thoughts and can imagine the exhaustion at the end.
Is Hosur Rayakottai manageable using Google maps (people report diversions that are different from maps).
BTW, a friend who drove last week says Kollam Tvm stretch is now faster as not many use it, notwithstanding the diversions along the service road. Hope the situation gets better in near future.
Thanks again

Hosur Rayakottai is manageable with Google Maps as very less diversions in this route. Again if its a week day, I would suggest to stick to the usual Hosur - Krishnagiri - Salem as the traffic will be less and one might not get the benefits of Rayakottai stretch. I took this since it was a long weekend. You can check the time difference in GMaps and if its like few minutes stick with Krishnagiri as its 6 laned.
Biggest bottleneck in both the routes is Thoppur ghat and the blocks here can be hit or miss.

Kollam - Tvm stretch is still a pain due to roadworks. Will easily take 2 hours unless one is driving after 9/10PM or very early morning. There are intermittent summer rains as well in this region now, that adds to the misery especially Paripally - Chathanoor part due to waterlogging.

Am driving back to Blr from Kollam tomorrow morning. Will rely on the same route as I took for the onward drive via Tirumangalam and will share the updates once I reach.

Drove back Kollam to Blr yesterday. Started at 5:40AM and reached home by 7:20PM. Roughly 13:40Hrs drive door to door. Drive was uneventful barring the 20mins block just before Attibele toll booth due to flyover construction as the service road was choked plus the city traffic from ECity to Old Airport road.

Total Drive time - 12:10hrs
Break time - 1:30hrs (3 breaks)

Took Kollam - Shenkottai - Rajapalyam - Tirumangalam - Karur - Salem - Blr route.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/aZFpmgY81bZGXtjG6

Skipped Krishnagiri and took Dharmapuri - Palacode - Rayakottai - Hosur road and had a smooth drive with very less traffic barring some minor jam at Rayakottai town. As someone suggested earlier, its better to stick to this route during daylight now, as less activity in the highway section. Once it is opened fully, should become like Blr - Salem route with lots of eateries and all.

Breakfast at Bombay Restaurant (veg only) in Rajapalyam. Decent place with good food. Rest rooms are so-so.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/vFo2ZVFgbnrGAh6h8

Hence took one more short break at Temple City hotel (veg only) near Tirumangalam, 1hr from here, as the rest rooms are neat and clean.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/8GXUWee6mjsSk8uB6

Lunch Break at "Salem Saravana Bavan" just before the Salem Toll Plaza. Neat rest rooms and good food (veg only).
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9M9MojVsTDnXZs5Q6

Kollam - Hotel Bombay, Rajapalyam: 3:35hrs (166Kms)
Rajapalyam - Temple City Hotel, Tirumangalam: 1:11hrs (59Kms)
Temple City Hotel - Salem Saravana Bavan, Salem toll booth: 3:13hrs (257Kms)
Salem Saravana Bavan - Blr, Old Airport Road: 4:09hrs (177Kms)

This road has broken up again :unhappy

It does have better surface now, but extremely large holes were showing up while traversing this path last week. Low sedans will have a tough time negotiating them.