[coolclouds]

Originally Posted by RSUDARSANAN

Your take on Kuthiran?

Kuthiran: Bumpy ride for about 20kms, stop and go at two places, ideal for a day drive as most of the potholes can be negotiated. Fastest route during day time, if ready to compromise on comfort.

Shornur: Ideal for night drive as local traffic is high during daytime, smooth surface all over. Trichur-Ollur-Kuriachira-Paliakkara toll route is relaid and smooth.

[RSUDARSANAN]

Originally Posted by coolclouds

Kuthiran:Fastest route during day time, if ready to compromise on comfort.

Thanks. That settles it. Shall indulge myself and give Kuthiran a miss till it gets a makeover. As stated in my previous post, for a change, opting for a not too fast a drive and taking the Pollachi-Alathur-Chellakara sector, a first for me. Cheers !

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by RSUDARSANAN

Thanks. That settles it. Shall indulge myself and give Kuthiran a miss till it gets a makeover. As stated in my previous post, for a change, opting for a not too fast a drive and taking the Pollachi-Alathur-Chellakara sector, a first for me. Cheers !

Just make sure you take the correct turns for each place and dont end up taking the palakkad road from pollachi,instead make sure you take the Govindapuram road at Pollachi and at Kollengode take the Alathur road via pallasana-pallavoor-kunhissery

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by coolclouds

I returned via Kuthiran yesterday. Irumbu Palam surface is clear now, but not widened (IIRC)

Oh! I thought It was widened. Thank you for the update.

For all other readers, I would take the usual BLR-KRISHNAGIRI-SALEM-CBE-PALAKAD-THRISSUR route any day. Roads are excellent, very good and average.

Originally Posted by motor_breathing

Drove from BLR to Chengannur this saturday.
Route = North BLR -> Salem-> Dindugul-> Theni -> Kumily -> Erumeli -> Ranni -> Chengannur.
Except for few minor diversions between Dindugul and Kumily, roads are pretty good. I did 630 Kms in 11 hours including breakfast, lunch and two fueling breaks. I started from home at 5AM and did not exceed 120 km in good stretches in a Verna petrol.

During christmas I drove from BLR to Chengannur through CBE Palakkad in my Laura VRS and it took 15 hours Door to door.

By the way petrol Verna seems to be a guzzler. I got an average of 11.7 for 1000 KM's. Even VRS gave a marginaly better average of 11.8 for the previous trip of 1400 Km's

Regards, MB.

MB,
Planning to drive to pandalam tomorrow via blr-dindigul-kumily.
4 Months back i tried this route and there was road work in progress between dindigul
and theni and had a tough time. Looks like that section is better now right?

rgds
nissam

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by nisam76

MB,
Planning to drive to pandalam tomorrow via blr-dindigul-kumily.
4 Months back i tried this route and there was road work in progress between dindigul
and theni and had a tough time. Looks like that section is better now right?

rgds
nissam

Widening is still in progress,to avoid it you could continue on NH7 till Kodai Road and go under the flyover after the toll gate and take the straight road to Vathalakundu-Theni.You would be able to avoid the Dindigul-Vathalakundu section with this detour.

Thanks Ranjith.
The 6:00 PM road closing at bandipur stretch is still there?
planning to start around 2 PM from bangalore, may able to try the BLR-Guldalpet-Battery route?

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by nisam76

Thanks Ranjith.
The 6:00 PM road closing at bandipur stretch is still there?
planning to start around 2 PM from bangalore, may able to try the BLR-Guldalpet-Battery route?

The CP gate is closed from 9pm to 6am.With a 2pm departure you should be at the gate by 6pm easily.

[PatienceWins]

I drove from Bangalore to Calicut to Ooty to Bangalore. The route followed was:

Bangalore > Mysore > Gundulpet > Bathery > Kalpetta > Calicut > Arekode > Nilambur > Gudalur > Ooty > Gudalur > Gundulpet > Chamrajnagar > Kollegal > Kanakapura > Bangalore

The road condition from Bangalore to Gundulpet is good, but there are too many speed breakers. I find that there are too many new speed breakers between Mysore and Gundulpet.

Gundulpet > Bathery> Kalpetta > Calicut stretch is very good now.

Calicut > Nilambur > Gudalur road condition is good, but the narrow road with small towns in between does not permit good speeds.

I took Chamaraj Nagar > Kanakapura route while coming back and was happy to drive on good roads without much traffic. There are hardly any speed breakers, maybe a couple of them in the entire route. This route is much better to go to Gundulpet than the usual Mysore route. I had lunch at Nandhini at Kollegal, a small restaurant. It seems Gundulpet > Chamaraj Nagar stretch is recently repaired.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

I took Chamaraj Nagar > Kanakapura route while coming back and was happy to drive on good roads without much traffic. There are hardly any speed breakers, maybe a couple of them in the entire route. This route is much better to go to Gundulpet than the usual Mysore route. I had lunch at Nandhini at Kollegal, a small restaurant. It seems Gundulpet > Chamaraj Nagar stretch is recently repaired.

Were there police checkposts on the way where they stopped and asked for details of where you're coming from and where you're headed ?
Asking since there were 2 such checkposts (due to upcoming Karnataka elections) where we were stopped and asked to sign in a register with vehicle details. These were (i) when exiting Chamarajanagar town towards Kollegal where the road through the village ends and you merge onto the 'real' highway and (ii) near the left turn off towards Melkote/Somanathpur.

We had another 'official encounter' at Kalpetta where cops stopped to check the vehicle documents. In fact the guys seemed to be surprised that everything was in order - RC, DL, Insurance and the PUC certificate, needless to say we were wearing the seat belts, so I guess they could not find anything else amiss

As you mentioned, this route is good since you can bypass Mysore completely. You could have also tried Nijaguna Residency or Mayura (in the bus stand) at Chamarajanagar for lunch.

Drove from Bangalore to Pandalam yesterday (via Salem, CBE, Palaghat,Thrissur, EKM, Aleppy, Changanassery, Chengannur, Pandalam).

Started from JP Nagar at 8 PM, reached salem by 11 PM(30 min break for dinner in-between). Reached CBE by 1:30 AM (missed L&T bypass due to a confusing sign board and entered CBE, good to see CBE after a while(last time was 5 years back ). Better roads, big hotels ... The road inside city was excellent and could reach NH via Ukkadam as fast as i could via bypass. Reached Thrissur by 4:00 AM. Except the last 20 Km stretch towards mannuthy, the road is in good shape. Reached EKM by 5:15 AM. Was feeling sleepy, stopped at Vyttila and had a nap for 30 minutes. Started at 5 :45 AM and reached pandalam via aleppy, changanassery, chengannur at 7 : 45 AM. (my ride : Baleno 2006 Lxi).

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by NPV

Were there police checkposts on the way where they stopped and asked for details of where you're coming from and where you're headed ?
Asking since there were 2 such checkposts (due to upcoming Karnataka elections) where we were stopped and asked to sign in a register with vehicle details. These were (i) when exiting Chamarajanagar town towards Kollegal where the road through the village ends and you merge onto the 'real' highway and (ii) near the left turn off towards Melkote/Somanathpur.

I did not find any checkposts or checking on the way. We were stopped at the bandipur checkpost before gundulpet. The person just glanced at the occupants and asked us to leave. I could see through the rear view mirror that a Kerala registered vehicle was being questioned.

We had another 'official encounter' at Kalpetta where cops stopped to check the vehicle documents. In fact the guys seemed to be surprised that everything was in order - RC, DL, Insurance and the PUC certificate, needless to say we were wearing the seat belts, so I guess they could not find anything else amiss

I did not face any checking in Kalpetta this time. Last time, I was caught near the turning to Soochipara water falls for not wearing seat belt.

As you mentioned, this route is good since you can bypass Mysore completely. You could have also tried Nijaguna Residency or Mayura (in the bus stand) at Chamarajanagar for lunch.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did not stop at Chamarajnagar as my family was sleeping. I have had food at Mayura while going to Coimbatore, the food was good and it is a better option than Nandhini at Kollegal.

[bbhavan]

Originally Posted by NPV

We had another 'official encounter' at Kalpetta where cops stopped to check the vehicle documents. In fact the guys seemed to be surprised that everything was in order - RC, DL, Insurance and the PUC certificate, needless to say we were wearing the seat belts, so I guess they could not find anything else amiss

Friends,

A small doubt, though it is not directly about the road condition.

What is the rule of PUC certificate requirement for new cars in KA,TN and KL?

In MH, it is not required for a new car up to 1 year. Mine has only 7 months old.

I am covering these states in the next week, as a part of mumbai-Cochin trip.

Do I need to have this certificate as a precaution?.

Pls. bear me for

bbhavan

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by bbhavan

Friends,

A small doubt, though it is not directly about the road condition.

What is the rule of PUC certificate requirement for new cars in KA,TN and KL?

In MH, it is not required for a new car up to 1 year. Mine has only 7 months old.

I am covering these states in the next week, as a part of mumbai-Cochin trip.

Do I need to have this certificate as a precaution?.

Pls. bear me for

bbhavan

Its an investment of INR50-75 and the return of investment is peace of mind.Better to just get that thing done with and dusted.

[binand]

Originally Posted by bbhavan

What is the rule of PUC certificate requirement for new cars in KA,TN and KL?
In MH, it is not required for a new car up to 1 year. Mine has only 7 months old.

I think it is the same everywhere - 1 year from date of registration. But it costs less than Rs. 100, so why not get one made anyway?