[ampere]

Originally Posted by joecherian

That means if we take the NH209 right from bangalore, roads are good all the way till cbe ?

Ravi did one good thing. He went on Mysore road till Maddur. That would take care of your BF. If you want to take NH209 all the way, I would say carry your food.

Originally Posted by joecherian

That means if we take the NH209 right from bangalore, roads are good all the way till cbe ?

I don't know the condition of NH 209 from Bangalore, viz., via Kanakapura. That's why, I preferred 4-laned Bangalore-Mysore SH 17 to reach Maddur. Yes, barring that bad stretch, the route is very good/excellent all the way to Coimbatore.

[joecherian]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

NH209 is fantastic right now all the way from Bangalore via Kanakapura, Malavalli, KOllegala, Chamarajanagar, Dimbam & Sathyamanagalam. Watch out for narrow bad roads in one section of Kanakapura town and keep an eye on signboards since there are several turn offs, and you can go off track if you are not careful.

Till the time 4 laning work is complete, Nh 209 might be a good alternative.
On my return from cochin through Nh 47, had a tough time passing through the construction area. To worsen the matters, there was an accident at one of the deviation where in a construction truck side sweeped a NHC and this resulted in a pile up on either sides.

[joecherian]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

I don't know the condition of NH 209 from Bangalore, viz., via Kanakapura. That's why, I preferred 4-laned Bangalore-Mysore SH 17 to reach Maddur. Yes, barring that bad stretch, the route is very good/excellent all the way to Coimbatore.

Ravi, can you please post the approximate timings that you took to cover the places on this route ? I would assume this might not be a fast route to reach coimbatore.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by joecherian

Ravi, can you please post the approximate timings that you took to cover the places on this route ? I would assume this might not be a fast route to reach coimbatore.

Let me give you my timings from last week's Bangalore-Coimbatore drive on NH209:

- Kanakapura Exit on NICE Road, 0 kms, 845 am
- Kanakapura, 37 kms, 915 am
- Malavalli, 88 kms, 1000 am
- Kollegala, 125 kms, 1030 am
- Yelandur, 145 kms, 1100 am
- Chamarajanagar, 167 kms, 1115 am
Delay of 30 minutes because of a mistaken turn in Charamajnagar town
- Dimbam, 222 kms, 1235 pm (after delay of 30 minutes)
- Sathyamangalam, 251 kms, 105 pm
- Annur, 290 kms, 145 pm
- Saravanampatti, 313 kms, 200 pm

I had a business meeting at the SEZ there, so I turned off NH209 here. Saravanampatti is 15 kms before Coimbatore city. After allowing for the delay I had in Chamarajnagar, one can safely assume a time of 5.15 hours for the Bangalore-Coimbatore drive via Kanakapura, a distance of approximately 330 kms. Can it get better than this? And I was travelling in day time with miscellaneaous traffic around the towns- none of whom have bypasses - and not travelling beyond 120 kmph at any point in time, so you get an idea how good the road is.

[joecherian]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Let me give you my timings from last week's Bangalore-Coimbatore drive on NH209:
.

Thanks hvk for the update. Even if it takes 6 hours, I think it will be a peaceful drive.(except for the confusion of turns, the first time you take this route)

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by joecherian

Thanks hvk for the update. Even if it takes 6 hours, I think it will be a peaceful drive.(except for the confusion of turns, the first time you take this route)

There is one other problem, if you continue on NH209, you will hav eto enter Coimbatore city if you are going beyond to Kerala. Therefore, turn left at Annur town towards Karumathampatti where you join NH47 and then further down, take the L&T Coimbatore bypass towards Palakkad or Pollachi.

Originally Posted by joecherian

Ravi, can you please post the approximate timings that you took to cover the places on this route ? I would assume this might not be a fast route to reach coimbatore.

Yes, this may be the shortest, but not the fastest, route to Coimbatore. It's only for Nature lovers!

I left my Basaveswara Nagar home by 3 am and reached Hotel Annapoorna, Ramakrishna Hospital, Coimbatore, by 9:30 am for breakfast including a break of about 10 minutes for photo session at Dhimbum and 30 minutes at Bannari Mariamman temple for darshan.

[sansvk]

Went to Kerala (Palakkad) during the Good Friday weekend.

Bangalore To Palakkad--> Took the NH47; Only problem as anticipated was the Avinashi-Coimbatore Four laning. There was heavy traffic on that stretch. Also there was some road repairs (tarring) after Walayar before Palakkad. Journey took almost 9.5 hours inclung 2 breaks of 1/2 hour each.

On the return journey I had to convince my family to try the Nilambur-Gudallur road. It was worth it. Starting from Mundur, took the Kozhikode road (NH213 I think), this strech had low to medium traffic upto Manarkkad. Then took a right towards Nilambur before Manjeri. This road is not in perfect condition but it is motorable and being repaired. Had lunch at Nilambur and started the ghat section upto Nadugani. The road is good except for a small landslide at one place which was again being cleared by the forest personnel. From Nadugani onto Gudallur and then onto Mysore. Was happy to see Nanjangud strech in good condition. I was in for a shock on the Mysore-Bangalore Highway due to heavy traffic (long weekend) and it took almost 4 hours to reach Bangalore from Mysore. Total journey time:12hours including 3 breaks toalling 1.5 hours. The return journey was shorter by 40kms and was more scenic (spotted a herd of elephants before mudumalai).

[Soccerfan]

My earlier plan for bangalore drive got postponed to next weekend (May 6).
Planning to start on friday afternoon 2PM. We need to go to madiwala. What would be the best route? Should I take NH47/NH7 through Avinashi or the NH209 from coimbatore? Is it possible to avoid Avinashi if i take NH7?

[ranjitp1]

Stick to the NH47/NH7 combo.you should be in madivala by late night.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by sansvk

Went to Kerala (Palakkad) during the Good Friday weekend.

Bangalore To Palakkad--> Took the NH47; Only problem as anticipated was the Avinashi-Coimbatore Four laning. There was heavy traffic on that stretch. Also there was some road repairs (tarring) after Walayar before Palakkad. Journey took almost 9.5 hours inclung 2 breaks of 1/2 hour each.

On the return journey I had to convince my family to try the Nilambur-Gudallur road. It was worth it. Starting from Mundur, took the Kozhikode road (NH213 I think), this strech had low to medium traffic upto Manarkkad. Then took a right towards Nilambur before Manjeri. This road is not in perfect condition but it is motorable and being repaired. Had lunch at Nilambur and started the ghat section upto Nadugani. The road is good except for a small landslide at one place which was again being cleared by the forest personnel. From Nadugani onto Gudallur and then onto Mysore. Was happy to see Nanjangud strech in good condition. I was in for a shock on the Mysore-Bangalore Highway due to heavy traffic (long weekend) and it took almost 4 hours to reach Bangalore from Mysore. Total journey time:12hours including 3 breaks toalling 1.5 hours. The return journey was shorter by 40kms and was more scenic (spotted a herd of elephants before mudumalai).

This route is quite scenic, but the Nilambur roads are tough to drive I would say. The roads are fantastic, but winds up quite a lot. So the passengers will be thrown around if we are driving fast.

Originally Posted by Soccerfan

My earlier plan for bangalore drive got postponed to next weekend (May 6).
Planning to start on friday afternoon 2PM. We need to go to madiwala. What would be the best route? Should I take NH47/NH7 through Avinashi or the NH209 from coimbatore? Is it possible to avoid Avinashi if i take NH7?

I guess the best option for you to take is the NH47. But if you reach Coimbatore - Avinashi around 6 PM - 7 PM which is most likely to happen, you should be facing heavy traffic ! And I would not encourage you to take the Bhavani - Mettur stretch, would be better off going to Salem thru the GQ and then to Thoppur. The last time I drove thru Bhavani - Mettur - Thoppur, the roads were worst and I lost a lot of time there - the pot holes are BIG too. You should be able to cover the time in the route suggested though Salem route is an additional 40 kms or so !

Edit: Since you are starting in the afternoon, you should be reaching anywhere around 12 AM - 1 AM at Madiwala depending on your speed. NH 209 is thru some Ghat section?? I would not suggest ghat sections for an evening / night drive !! Safety first.

[kala]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Let me give you my timings from last week's Bangalore-Coimbatore drive on NH209:

- Kanakapura Exit on NICE Road, 0 kms, 845 am
- Kanakapura, 37 kms, 915 am
- Malavalli, 88 kms, 1000 am
- Kollegala, 125 kms, 1030 am
- Yelandur, 145 kms, 1100 am
- Chamarajanagar, 167 kms, 1115 am
Delay of 30 minutes because of a mistaken turn in Charamajnagar town
- Dimbam, 222 kms, 1235 pm (after delay of 30 minutes)
- Sathyamangalam, 251 kms, 105 pm
- Annur, 290 kms, 145 pm
- Saravanampatti, 313 kms, 200 pm

I had a business meeting at the SEZ there, so I turned off NH209 here. Saravanampatti is 15 kms before Coimbatore city. After allowing for the delay I had in Chamarajnagar, one can safely assume a time of 5.15 hours for the Bangalore-Coimbatore drive via Kanakapura, a distance of approximately 330 kms. Can it get better than this? And I was travelling in day time with miscellaneaous traffic around the towns- none of whom have bypasses - and not travelling beyond 120 kmph at any point in time, so you get an idea how good the road is.

My timings for the same stretch done last Saturday :

NH209 about 1 km past NICE Road crossing : 0227 PM (Remembered to switch on my GPS tracker only when I reached here)
Kanakapura (37 kms) : 0258 PM
Malavalli (84 kms) : 0333 PM
Kollegal (117 kms) : 0357 PM
Yelandur (129 kms) : 0411 PM
Chamarajnagar (156 kms) : 0434 PM
Hasanur (199 kms) : 0512 PM (Break for 16 minutes - start again at 0528 PM)
Sathyamangalam (213 kms) : 0603 PM
Annur (269 kms) : 0645 PM
Karumathampatti (286 kms) : 0703 PM

And on NH47 - Much slower !!
L&T Byepass start (297 kms) : 0741 PM
L&T Byepass end (324 kms) : 0810 PM

GPS Trace of my trip attached.

[joecherian]

Heard from one of my friend that you can actually go further upto Saravanampatty and then take a left to airport from there. This road joins the airport road, from where, if you take another left(which is a 6 lane road) , it joins LT bye pass . This way, you can avoid the 10 kms of 2 lane road from karumathampatty to LT bye pass.

[cooljai]

Will be driving back to Bangalore from Pathanamthitta on Saturaday, 30th April. Would like to avoid the Avinashi stretch and try alternate routes. We plan to start early in the morning around 4 Am. The different routes that we wanted to try were
1) Chalakudy- Valparai- Pollachi- Perundurai
2) Punalur- Tenkasi- Dindigul
3) Annur- Sathy- Chamrajnagar
Would be travelling with family (Parents, Wife and baby). Which one of these would be faster and most comfortable (Prefer 4 lanes)