[Knight Rider]

Has anyone taken the Bangalore- Calicut-Edapall-Kochi Route recently? I am leaving today evening.

[hellstar]

Phew just reached home now !

As Hvkumar updated everything is fine except for the strech beyond the first hair pin curve till about kulathupuzha , thats about 20 Kms is nothing short of a horrendous, thunked my rims couple of times , gotta get them checked now

I had slept over at Salem due to driving rain , but started early at about 0500 Hrs ......

I guess the route via nagercoil is the best .......and will be taking that on my return trip ....

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by hellstar

Phew just reached home now !

As Hvkumar updated everything is fine except for the strech beyond the first hair pin curve till about kulathupuzha , thats about 20 Kms is nothing short of a horrendous, thunked my rims couple of times , gotta get them checked now

I had slept over at Salem due to driving rain , but started early at about 0500 Hrs ......

I guess the route via nagercoil is the best .......and will be taking that on my return trip ....

check before you decide, last heard there is lot of 4 lane activity happening in that route

[leodelg]

guys.. i am really lost.... i have to leave for irinjalakkuda tomorrow early morning and I have absolutely no idea what route to take! It seems like every road in kerala is absolutely bust! And most the posts here give contradicting suggestions. I was thinkin abt goin thru the Bangalore - Mysore - Bandipur- Gudallur-Nilambur-Perinthalmanna - Shoranur - Thrissur route and come back by the Palakkad - Walayar - Coimbatore - Salem - Hosur route. In that case, I can get the worst and best of each road.... hehehehe.... and hopefully update what the situation is. But on a serious note, if anyone could give a solid suggestion as to which road to take, I would appreciate it.

[hvkumar]

Despite the sad state of the Palakkad-Trissur road, I think the best route for you would be the conventional Coimbatore-Trissur-Irinjalakuda route. At least, you have a clean fast drive till you enter Kerala, and don't have to content with elephants, bison, heavy forest rains and congested roads of North Kerala.

[s0uljah]

Ok here's my experience -

Bangalore - Mysore - Gundalpet - Sulthan Bathery - Thamarassery - Kozhikode (Calicut).

I can confidently say this is the best condition of roads I have witnessed on this route. Of course Im driving through nearly after 3 years.

Bad spots - Few in Bandipur and approaching Sulthan Bathery. Ghat has some minimal damage but negligible stretches.

Kozhikode - Quilandy - Badagara - Thalassery - Mahe - Kannur - Kasargod - Mangalore

Kozhikode - Mahe the roads are pretty narrow and those who are familiar with the usual Kerala transport goons on the roads. Condition of roads are ok.

Mahe onwards its nothing short of hell, the town itself has some monster craters. Its pretty much a dismal drive uptil Neeleshwar. From there on you can step on the accelerator through Kasargod and head right about until Mangalore.

Mangalore - Bantwal - Sakleshpur - Hassan - Nelamangla - Bangalore

Its been 5 years since I used that ghat and I knew it was bad but Mangalore to Sakleshpur was worse than anything I had imagined
The plight of the heavy transport vehicles is really sad.

Will post a brief travelogue and pics in the forum for those who are interested.

Originally Posted by kartikkumar

sOuljah, looks like you are going to be the one to update us on the condition of the roads to and in kerala. Look forward to a positive report chief, else my dear Swift D is not going to like me for a long time to come...

Cheers!

Where you headed ??

[kartikkumar]

Thanks for the update sOuljah. Hope you had a good trip. Look forward to that travelogue.

Am headed to Kozhikode and have decided to fly instead of drive this time around. Am only going for a couple of days and don't have any company on the drive, so it might be safer not to drive alone.

Cheers!

[joecherian]

Hi . I am just back after a roung trip - Bangalore to Kasargod to Bangalore.While going we took the madikkeri route. Bangalore-Srirangapatanam-Hunsur-Kushal Nagar-Madikkeri-Bhgamandala-Panathur-Kanghagad
.The route is fine Kushal nagar but after that it is tyhe bumpy ride till Madikkeri. From there, till Bhagamandala, roads are good and then you have to cross forests for around 30 kms.It is advisable not to venture this section at night as we were told that there are some ANTI SOCIAL elements over there.More over, the roads are very narrow with carriage width just enough for a car and if some body comes in the opposite way, it is tough to cross.Also, you can expect a tree to fall and block the road and then you alone would have to clear the way as there are very less vehicles.So better to avoid this route.There is another route through sullya but I havent tried that and it seems it crosses more dense forests.

While coming back we took the long route - Kanjagad-Nileshwar-Payyannur-Thaliparambu-iritty-nedumboyil-Manathavady-Panamaram-Sulthan Battery-Gundalpet-Nanjangud-Mysore-Bangalore- Around 460 kms.
Of this stretch,nileswar-talipparambu strech of NH 17 is in sheer bad state and is not worth riding.But then we had to and we managed to reach Thalipparambu.From there, the iritty road is in great state.Good roads lined with trees all the way till iritty.Here , you got to cross the bridge, go further till you find a petrol bunk on the left, and then take the next left turn which goes to Nedumpoyil and then on to Mannthavady . Roads are good which goes winding through the ghats.From mananthavady, take the road to panamaram and on entering panamaram , there is a left turn which takes you straight to bathery.Good drivable roads till bathery and from there it is the time tested NH 212 which goes through Muthanga forests.For us we took around 12 hours with 3 breaks in between.Over all a good drive.

[leodelg]

Hi.... i just got back from a Bangalore - Thrissur round trip (literally). Since I was confused as to which road to take, I went by this route

Bangalore - Mysore - Wayanad - Thamarassery - Areakodde - Manjeri - Perinthalmanna - Pattambi - Thrissur

The road was good in about 80% of the places. And about 10% decent. But the remaining 10% is nothing short of disastrous! We left Bangalore at 6:30 in the morning and reached Thrissur at around 6:30 pm..... 12 hours (including breakfast and lunch break and a tyre change due to a puncture) and a distance of about 480 kms.

I came back through this route.

Thissur - Palakkad - Coimbatore - Bhavani - Mettur - Thoppur - Dharmapuri - Krishnagiri - Hosur - Bangalore

This route has about 90% of good roads, 5% decent roads and 5% of SUV test tracks. Left Thrissur at 3:45 pm and reached bangalore at 1:45 am the next day...... 10 hours of drive (including dinner and repairing the punctured tyre) and a distance of.... you wont believe it..... 480 kms!! The drive was good till I hit the NH after Thoppur. It was raining hard and it seemed like all the fully loaded trucks in South India decided to have a race! But the rain eased off once I reached Dharmapuri and the rest of the drive was uneventful.

My suggestion: Take the Thissur - Palakkad - Coimbatore - Bhavani - Mettur - Thoppur - Dharmapuri - Krishnagiri - Hosur - Bangalore route. That is unless if you are a nature freak, driving during the day and want to see sights like this.

Before Bandipur:







Ghat section after Wayanad:

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

leodelg, so the Trissur - Walayar stretch is fixed?

[leodelg]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

leodelg, so the Trissur - Walayar stretch is fixed?

no sir!! Please read my report.... thrissur to NH47 is still a very good road. But from then on, till Walayar, the roads are good in some areas, decent in some areas and really, really bad in a few spots!! It doesnt look like there has been any work on that stretch for the past one year at least. So be prepared for a bumpy ride...

[Steeroid]

Update: Cochin to Bangalore. Special thanks to hvkumar!

Stage 1: Cochin - Trichur

Dont bother with NH47. From Marine Drive, take the new Vypin Bridge and enter Vypin Island. This road joins NH17, and is narrow but in excellent condition. Very smooth surface.

At N Paravur, we join NH17 and continue on to Triprayar. Take right at Triprayar to Trichur. Excellent roads throughout with a couple of broken spots.

You reach Trichur much faster than you would've if you had used NH 47.

Stage 2: Trichur - Palghat

From Trichur, take the State Highway to Shoranur. Superb condition, and if it werent for the traffic this is a road you can blast away on.

From Shoranur, take a right to Palghat. This is the new 4-lane highway and the road is phenomenal wherever the highway has been completed. However, the stretch of road through the two small towns of Vaniamkulam and Ottapalam are sheer hell. These are small stretches, though - probably around 5 kms in total after which its smooth all the way to Palghat.

Stage 3: Palghat - Coimbatore.

This road is hell. No two ways about it. The surface is uneven and broken throughout - this by itself is not a problem, especially when you're driving a bus like the Safari. Its the hidden craters in between that cause big damage - because of the broken condition of the road it is difficult to spot the really bad craters. It would've been much easier if we had craters in between unbroken surfaces - they would've been easy to spot.

The stretch from Walayar to the start of the L&T byepass in Coimbatore has become worse than the Palghat - Walayar section.

I went up and down this stretch (PGT - CBE) 4 times in 2 days and the vehicle has been through hell.

Stage 4: Coimbatore - Satyamangalam - Chamrajnagar

SUPERB roads, except for some broken sections after you cross the border into Karnataka. Plus the speedbreakers - more on this later, but Karnataka seems to have a love affair with unmarked speedbreakers that are very crudely put together.

Stage 5: Chamrajnagar - Bangalore

UNKNOWN - I turned off to Mysore from here.


Stage 6: Chamrajnagar - Nanjangud

Mostly good roads except in stretches where they are building new railway overbridges. Again you have to watch out for innumerable unmarked speedbreakers. The general rule is that there is one before and after every village, every movie theatre, every small hotel on the road. Therefore slow down every time you see some civilization.

DO NOT TAKE THE NANJANGUD BYEPASS - ITS A VEHICLE KILLER. Take the route through town into the NH. From there the road is predictably good.

Stage 7: Mysore - Hunsur - Periyapatna - Siddhapura

The BM Road is in excellent condition upto Periyapatna except for one DANGEROUS unmarked diversion. You could very well end up as part of the scenery if you're speeding (which is expected because the road is in great condition till there). This diversion is about 10 kms from the Mysore Ring road.

The road breaks up dangerously again just before Periyapatna - this time immediately at the end of a fast and sweeping turn. If you're not careful you'd hit the dirt and go sideways. I did.

Again, watch out for unmarked, crude speedbreakers put up by the local population before and after every bit of civilization. These are crudely built using MUD AND ROCKS. I mean rocks - huge uneven granite rocks. If its been raining, the mud gets washed off leaving a string of large granite pieces on the road.

The road from Periyapatna to Siddhapura is excellent, with just a few broken bits in the forest leg. Take this route if you're travelling to Coorg. The Siddhapura - Kushalnagar stretch is also good till it hits the Bantwal road about 7 kms before Kushalnagar.

Siddhapura - Mysore - Bangalore

Good drive. Just watch out for those speedbreakers.

[Steeroid]

Just drove back from Bangalore and realized I got it all wrong on the way up - NH 212 via Mysore, Gundelpet, Sultan's Battery and Kalpetta to Kozhikode is in terrific condition and there is no need for anyone to look for alternative routes.

The only portions that are bad are:

1. Small portion of < 1 km between Mysore and Nanjangud.

2. Gundelpet to the Kerala border - the road is uneven but not broken completely. In the forest section there are a few nasty spots - watch out on the turns (thats where they are broken) and wherever there is some sign of repair activity and you should be okay.

From the Kerala border the road is excellent all the way to Kozhikode. The Ghats had some signs of monsoon wear, but these were being repaired as we drove down. Nothing too bad, except for one hairpin bend.

From then on, take NH17 down from Calicut upto Edappal. Turn right at Edappal to Ponnani, and take the Ponnani-Chavakkad coastal highway to avoid the bad roads, traffic and mad bus drivers in the stretch from Edappal to Chavakkad via NH 17.

From there on to Cochin is a good drive. You can avoid the narrow roads after Kodungallur if you take a left from SN Puram (after Triprayar/Valappad) and head towards NH47 at Potta.

From this point NH47 is pretty okay as you only need to do about 6-8 kms on it upto Angamaly where the 4-lane road begins.

No harm in staying on NH17 all the way to Cochin, though. You dont even have to take the diversion via Ponnani - I do it just to beat the traffic and keep moving.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Stage 1: Cochin - Trichur

Dont bother with NH47. From Marine Drive, take the new Vypin Bridge and enter Vypin Island. This road joins NH17, and is narrow but in excellent condition. Very smooth surface.

.

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?

[Steeroid]

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?

Vypin Bridge has been around for the last 5 years or so - or at least since A K Antony kept his election promise. They kept their promises - unlike this current lot of garbage who have only let our good roads rot away to glory. I really miss the UDF Government and Muneer in particular.

Dont know how much distance this cuts, but it sure saves you a whole lot of time and frustration. For those living in town it cuts out the hassle of joining the mad rush out of the city, something that lasts all the way to Angamaly. Compared to that this is almost idyllic, despite the roads being very narrow.

Yes the bridge starts at the (current) end of Marine Drive.