[condor]

Originally Posted by sary

Yes, you read it right ! There are FASTAG readers installed on all toll booths just above each toll collectors cabin.

One question - how is it at the Nelamangala tolls ? And the one near 8th mile after the elevated road in BLR ends ?

Hubli - Davangere - Chitradurga are all equally bad, average out one diversion every 10kms.

And there are no alternate routes ..

Thanks, @Sary. I was planning to drive down last Saturday, but had to postpone due to the rains. These diversions will not go away in the near future, but your updates definitely help prepare for it. Almost 50 ? diversions in that stretch makes it look like what it was a few years ago before the present 4-laner was completed.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by sary

There are FASTAG readers installed on all toll booths just above each toll collectors cabin. My FASTAG worked at all but one toll where they did manual scan.

Originally Posted by condor

One question - how is it at the Nelamangala tolls ? And the one near 8th mile after the elevated road in BLR ends ?

All lanes are FASTag enabled since more than a year back. This includes almost all the booths till Ranebennur.

Nelamangala (NH48/NH4 Junction) is where all are FASTag enabled. However, NBTL (20 INR) has only one lane that has manual scanner for FASTag.

[condor]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

All lanes are FASTag enabled since more than a year back. This includes almost all the booths till Ranebennur.

Had been upto Bellur cross last month. Didnt seem apparent. And there were a few cars in the other lanes, queued up. Btw, havent driven towards Hubli in a long time.


Also doesnt seem the case at the one near Parle factory/8th mile ? Or the one at Nelamangala as we come towards BLR

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by condor

Also doesnt seem the case at the one near Parle factory/8th mile ? Or the one at Nelamangala as we come towards BLR

On Hassan Highway things are still iffy and only dedicated lanes.

Parle Factory toll still uses Handheld scanner on a dedicated lane. The most useless booth I have ever seen. Even if you enter the next lane and ask them for the scanner, 7 out of 10 times they are reluctant.

In short, no dedicated lane for this booth.

[condor]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Parle Factory toll still uses Handheld scanner on a dedicated lane. .. In short, no dedicated lane for this booth.

No, the dedicated lane works. I have used it. What I find crazy is no scanners on the minor entrances between there and Nelamangala - except the one near NICE junction

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by condor

No, the dedicated lane works. I have used it. What I find crazy is no scanners on the minor entrances between there and Nelamangala - except the one near NICE junction

That is what I am mentioning. At Parle toll you are at the mercy of the dedicated lane only and that too they use manual scanner. The same lane is also used for cash and one person will be issuing tickets with money on a makeshift table after the booth and same person will be holding the scanner also.

What I meant to say was here at this booth not all lanes are FASTag enabled.

[Mnjdnght]

Originally Posted by Ertigiat

Anmod ghat is not officially open. Local have made some provision for cars to ply. I would not recommend Anmod ghat for travelling. It is not yet ready to handle traffic.

I would recommend Bangalore - Kittur - Bidi - Khanapur - Chorla - Sanquelim - Candolim route.

Originally Posted by Pequod

Which route did you finally go with? Driving from Davangere to Candolim on 11th. Updates would be appreciated.

Originally Posted by luvurride

I drove yesterday on this. ...
To me, the 6 laning work on the Chitradurga - Hubbali was the most frustrating part to drive through.
...
Route Update: I took the Jog-Sagara-Shimoga-Chitradurga route back and was surprised to find good tarmac till Shimoga. The ghat sections are fantastic especially.

The bonus was the full flow in Jog due to the release of water.

Brilliant. Many times on my return, I kept thinking I should've done this too.

Wow, all the above messages would've been extremely helpful, only if I could go back in time and redo my routing. Anyway I made it to and back from Goa as planned and without incident to person or property. My updates below:

Bangalore - Goa on Sep 5 via Bangalore - Dharwad - Ramanagar (Yes!) - Anmod - Fort Aguada. Left Bangalore at 5 AM. Overall door to door journey time of 13 hours from Arekere to Fort Aguada with 5 stops of about 1.5 hours

Goa - Bangalore on Sep 8 via Fort Aguada - Amboli - Belgaum - Dharwad - Bangalore. Left Goa at 6:15 AM. Overall door to door journey time of 14 hours with 1 stop of 30 minutes and route loss time of around 2 - 2.5 hours.

1. Had intermittent spells of moderate rain all the way till Hubli and intermittent, blinding heavy spells of rain between Dharwad and Goa.

2. NICE road is Not-So-Nice any more. But in the overall context of my journey it turned out to be not so bad.

3. Tumkur - Chitradurga is the best section to drive on. The sector to make good on your drive time.

4. Chitradurga - Hubli. Lot of comments about the work in progress and detours already. Enough said. But, still, that section is a whole world of pain for the person and car. A few sections immediately after Chitradurga (while going) seemed done well with black tarmac but the ones before and after Davangere are atrocious. Mostly muddy, slushy, full of potholes and all sorts of mayhem. For me this was just the start, I had worse in store!

5. I had routed my journey in Google Maps through Tadas - Jagalpet - Castlerock (through Dandeli) - Anmod. I had made a few calls the previous day and got info from some locals that cars are being allowed from Ramnagar towards Anmod and onward to Goa. So I was sure of making it, but, well, in what shape, was the mystery. Somewhere after Davangere Google started insisting on a faster route option for me via Dharwad - Ramanagar - Anmod and after declining the first few times, I surrendered to the lure of saving 9 minutes of journey time!

Barring a few bad patches the state highway from Dharwad to Ramanagar is a very smooth, scenic drive. The fun starts after Ramanagar. There is white topping in progress after Ramanagar towards Anmod. Plenty of incomplete sections that can make for good off-road trails. Rains and slush always game to up the fun factor. Made it very slowly and without incident. I saw just a handful of other non-local cars. Only good thing is that the yellow, red indicators on Google Maps is spot on as indicator of bad sections, not that one can do much about it, just helps to know.

After making it through this section and reaching the start of Anmod, all we could see was slush, mud pools, an ominous looking stop barrier, heavy rains and a desolate clump of shops. We considered turning around and looking for alternate routes. But a caring local shopkeeper encouraged us saying, we can go under the stop barrier and continue with the journey. So we did. The first few KMs, it was slow and painful, picking our way by deciding which potholes looked safe to put the wheels in and which to stay out of. With water and slush in all of them, it was a good game to indulge in on a long drive. Just after entering the Goa side, we saw a gaping break in the road and all but gave up hope of making it through. Just as I was wondering how the other few cars made it from the other side, I spotted a narrow strip of road by the side to make it through. After this, the roads started becoming decent to good all the way to destination. Barring patches of low visibility dense mist, intermittent spells of blinding rain and a fully distended, ultra-sound-ready bladder (no decent place to stop after Hubli) we made it through and surprised our Hotel staff by running first to the restrooms before they could even say "Welcome".

6. Lesson well learnt and decided to route the return through Chorla. Going by the spells of rain Goa was receiving during our stay on 5, 6 and 7, I decided to start a bit late on 8th. Start of the journey was dry and mostly stayed so till we got past the ghats. Reached Chorla around 7:15 and found us in a jam. Enquiries yielded information about a road slide up in the ghats and that lot of vehicles were stuck above on their journey down and a jam was quickly building for the way up. Word was about that it would be at least 10 by the time movement would start. Several cars were making a quick turn around but I couldn't figure out their alternate route plans. Trust Google to always have your best interests. It suggested an alternate route via Dodamarg - Tilari Nagar - Shinoli - Belgaum, longer by just 57 minutes. We went past Dodamarg and came up to a fork where Google showed two options, one the suggested route via Tilari Nagar and another option that took us back to Chorla, but somewhere at the start of it at the top, with a similar ETA. Stopped and inquired with a few vehicles coming from the opposite side (supposedly the Chorla side) and confirmed with a shopkeeper near by that there is no road to Chorla, it is a mud road at best and Google's suggested route section is closed. The only option was to make it back to Dodamarg and go via Amboli. We found our way through some ok-ish roads to the main NH66-Amboli road (which could've been done with much less adventure had it been chosen at the start). Amboli ghat itself was a good drive. Not too much traffic. Just some mist and rain after crossing the ghats. Amboli - Belgaum section is a decent drive. Belgaum to Dharwad is a smooth sector before the 2 lane mess of a bypass, off-roading through the Hubli - Chitradurga sector and then doing a video game drive through traffic from Chitradurga all the way till home, first with 6 lanes, then denser traffic through 4 lanes and finally through racing trucks on Nice road before winding up with a memory of Ramanagar - Anmod on Bannerghatta road, well, allow me some exaggeration.

So, in summary - Avoid Anmod. Update from Sary, through my originally routed option, is encouraging. But I would still discourage this option in wet weather.

Chorla is iffy.

Route that luvurride took seems to be the better of all.

Originally Posted by sary

We were stuck at Chorla for about 1.5hrs due to land slide. ...

When were you at Chorla? Trying to put it in context to mine.

[Pequod]

Originally Posted by Mnjdnght

Brilliant. Many times on my return, I kept thinking I should've done this too.

Thanks for the update.

Am now thinking of taking the Karwar route from Davangere viz. Davangere-Tadas-Kalaghatgi-Yellapur-Karwar-Candolim. Downside is I get all the traffic from Madgaon, but roads throughout the above route are in good condition as per few other forums.

Any input on this?

[luvurride]

Originally Posted by Pequod

Thanks for the update.

Am now thinking of taking the Karwar route from Davangere viz. Davangere-Tadas-Kalaghatgi-Yellapur-Karwar-Candolim.

Any input on this?

Please refer my post which is the live update as of two days ago.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4653105

[sary]

Originally Posted by condor

One question - how is it at the Nelamangala tolls ? And the one near 8th mile after the elevated road in BLR ends ? And there are no alternate routes ..

I entered FASTAG lane at Nelamangala toll and had no issues there. The one near 8th Mile, traffic was piling up so they let me and many other cars to ride free. Observed that attendant was collecting money for typically HCV's (including taxis) to avoid 3 minute delay confrontation. Yet to explore alternative routes.

Originally Posted by condor

Thanks, @Sary. I was planning to drive down last Saturday, but had to postpone due to the rains. These diversions will not go away in the near future, but your updates definitely help prepare for it. Almost 50 ? diversions in that stretch makes it look like what it was a few years ago before the present 4-laner was completed.

Exactly, imagine going back in time when the present 4-laner was getting done. Also, hardly any activity seen around completing these flyovers, don't be surprised if they take 2-3 years or even longer.

Originally Posted by Mnjdnght

So, in summary - Avoid Anmod. Update from Sary, through my originally routed option, is encouraging. But I would still discourage this option in wet weather.

Chorla is iffy.

Route that luvurride took seems to be the better of all.

When were you at Chorla? Trying to put it in context to mine.

While travelling from BLR to GOA on 31st Aug, I chose to remain on road initially suggested by Google (Shiggaon - Dandeli - Castle Rock - Anmod - Mollem). Mind you this is a 1.5/2mts village road cutting left and difficult to spot from NH. All in all, the narrow roads thru villages were smooth throughout and hardly any vehicular movement. Also rains added advantage as villagers remained mostly indoors.
The Castle Rock road meets Anmod road just 1km before the Anmod Jolly Hotel. That way you avoid all the messy stretch from NH till Anmod (be it diversions on NH or on Hubli-Ramanagar SH) and save also on Tolls (Time is Money). The only bad stretch as you mentioned is about 4KMS from Anmod till Goa border and not to forget the huge crater on Border which was worrisome.

Returning on 8th Sep, I left Panjim at 9:30AM and reached Chorla around 10:30AM (via Mapusa - Assnora - Sankhlim). I was about 2kms away from the landslide site and it took good 2 hours (of patience and waiting) to concur on to the other side. By 12:30PM I could escape all the traffic that had piled up and continued by journey.

[SREEHARI R]

Hello Folks, I am planning for an excursion to Goa from Bangalore on 1st week of November. Please, guide me regarding the routes and pit stops...!

[Ertigiat]

Update on Anmod ghat, it will be closed any sort of traffic from today. Expected completion date is December 2019.

People planning to travel via Anmod ghat please make a note of it because Gmaps is still showing this road as open.

[SRN]

Hi there! Planning a trip to Goa (from Bangalore) later this week. For my past visits (the last one was some time ago!) I used Bangalore - Hubli - Yellapur - Karwar - Madgoan route. Does anyone have any update on this route? Is there a better route to South Goa that recent travellers may recommend?

[Sojourner]

Originally Posted by SRN

Hi there! Planning a trip to Goa (from Bangalore) later this week. For my past visits (the last one was some time ago!) I used Bangalore - Hubli - Yellapur - Karwar - Madgoan route. Does anyone have any update on this route? Is there a better route to South Goa that recent travellers may recommend?

I travelled last week to Goa (South Goa - Benaulim). Anmod Ghat had partially opened when we travelled to Goa on Sep 16 and they closed the limited access way by 18th. So, I was able to go to Goa through Anmod Ghat. The Anmod Ghat stretch was treacherous. I have attached a few pics below. There is plenty of work happening between Chitradurga and Hubli, so although the roads until Hubli are not bad, the journey is quite difficult.

While returning, we took the Karwar, Ankola, Jog falls, Shimoga, Hiriyur, Bangalore route. The roads are good. A pleasant drive. The journey took about 12 hours to complete, inclusive of about an hour for lunch and a visit to Jog falls enroute.

[sdp1975]

Visiting Benaulim this month end. Given the conditions of Anmod ghat, planning to go via Karwar. How are the road conditions of :

Bangalore - Bankapur - Mundgod - Yellapur - Karwar - Benaulim.

Or should I stick to the Shimoga route in view on the ongoing road work on the above stretch ?