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-   -   Bangalore to Trichy : Route Queries (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/29969-bangalore-trichy-route-queries-12.html)

Any idea about the road condition from Kumily to Dindigul and Thanjavur to Velankanni? thanks

Kumily-Theni-Dindigul is a good 2L NH. Not sure of the current rain effects, but as far as I know, the road is very decent.

Not aware of the Tajore-Velankanni stretch.

Thanjavur -Velankanni via Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam is decent with occasional pot holes. But this is a very winding road with lot of accident-prone areas, so please be alert at all times.

I've travelled till Nagapattinam recently, but am not so sure about Nagapattinam-Velankanni stretch. But it should not matter much as it is a small distance.

They doing rail line on this section as well (gauge conversion) for the last 2-3 years. The Tsunami disaster also delayed the project.

We did our trip as planned on the weekend of Oct 30. The route to Trichy was Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Salem-Namakkal-Thottiyam-Musiri-Trichy. (This was only a small part of our long trip that included Kanyakumari and Trivandrum)

Roads upto Namakkal are 4L and very good. Traffic was a bit high near Salem. Again one gets slowed down while passing through Namakkal town.

After Namakkal we entered the SH. I actually was enjoying my drive on the old fashioned 2L SH to Srirangam-Trichy. 4L roads get a bit boring at times :). Anyway, some stretches of the ~80 km SH are very bad. I would totally avoid these at night. The roads are manageable during day time.

As planned, we also went to Madurai from Trichy (via NH45B) on our way to Kanyakumari. One needs to pay toll at two places - just after Trichy and next at Mellur Toll booth. This road is a dream to drive on. It is a 4L road all the way, plus some stretches are really scenic. Sad we were in a hurry and couldn't stop.

On our way to Kanyakumari we entered Madurai and this turned out to be a bad decision. Not only did we spend too much time inside the city, we also took too long to get to NH7. The road connecting Madurai town to NH7 is very bad. I wonder if we would have to go through this stretch if we had continued on NH45B?

I think there is a bypass from NH45B to NH7 which does not go through the town. I remember HVK mentioning that all by-passes in Madurai are in place (esp NH7 and 45).

@ampere, yes, the by-pass is in place, but @CBlazer, i don't think your decision to enter Madurai city was bad, because its a too long route via thirumangalam. Rather, you could swim through the madurai city traffic in shorter time.

We too were in dilemma whether to by-pass madurai city or go inside, but we took the advice from one of our friend who resides in madurai & finally decided to go via city which seemed to be a better option.

I agree, the roads via samayanallur connecting city to NH7 are bad and really reduces the momentum

-Ravi

Planning to goto Trichy and then to Karaikudi/Pillayarpatti this weekend.
I know that CBlazer had given an update on route condition to Trichy beginning of this month.
But since its raining veryy heavily in last few days, any body else went recently or know of the current status due to heavy rains?

-Ravi

Not sure of the Trichy-Pudukottai stretch. But you should not have any issues on the 45B. Then turn to Tirupattur. This route will be 20Km longer, but you get 4L for 3/4 of the distance.

Not sure how is Musiri-Trichy today.

@Ravi, I had visited Pillayarpatti from Madurai last weekend. The MDU-Pudukkottai road from Melur-Tirupattur was affected in some areas due to rains and had quite a few potholes. I'm assuming it should be the same with the rest of the route if you are opting the Trichy-Pudukkottai-Thirumayam route.
Instead, as Ampere suggested, stick on to NH45B, break at Singampunari and onto Tirupattur, atleast you will save most of kms on bad roads.

Only thing I later realized is that if the route is fully 4 Laned, the road would be barricaded. So, you need to be alert, to know where to exit. Hope these routes are well marked.

Thanks luvurride and ampere. :)

-Ravi

Just came back from trip to Trichy & Pillayarpatti and here is the road condition update on 5-Dec-10, after NE monsoon rains.

B'lore-Salem-Namakkal excellent
Namakkal-Thottiyam - good with few potholes/patches
Thottiyam-Musiri - read below for detailed update
Musiri-Trichy - Okay with few potholes

From Trichy to Pillayarpatti :
Took Trichy-Madurai highway NH45B almost upto Melur => Excellent 4 lane roads.
And then took left from NH45B via Singanampuri-Tirupattur-Pillayarpatti => Good with few potholes/patches here and there. No complaints !
This route is about ~30 kms more than the Pudukottai route,but saves some time.

From Pillayarpatti/Kundrakudi to Trichy (Took Pudukottai route).
NH226 upto Thirumayam is not good, but after that NH210 is in excellent condition.

Trichy to Bangalore, just the reverse route mentioned above.
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Thottiyam-Musiri (SH25): I thought a lot to write about this stretch as it as become very special now but for wrong reasons...
Should i say, it has
- Potholes , No !
- Patches, No !
- Bad roads, No !
- Craters , Not even that. Its all of it.
All I can say, consider it as if there is no road at all !!!. If you want to get an experience of driving in Mars, this is stretch for you and you get a free massage to your back and increase the body pain.

Damn, it took more than an hour for us to cover just little above 20 kms. To add to the irritation, truck traffic loading sand from nearby Kaveri riverbanks.

The funniest part is, when there is actually no road at all, we saw a board in this stretch reading "Spead breaker ahead, Go slow". First of all, i am searching where the road is ! In middle of it, have to figure out the speed breaker. Then i told my friend that we are driving at high speed of 5 kmph, so lets go slow (follow :rules: ) at 2kmph or even we better get down and push the vehicle lol: Thats how i can describe how bad the road is.

In total, its an extremely bad stretch, but its very difficult to avoid without choice while going from Namakkal to Trichy ! Strongly not recommended for cars with low ground clearance, and a good test for 4WD !

-Ravi

Thottiyam-Musiri is bad news. And this road was in good condition a few weeks ago. But does one have a choice - the NH67 from Karur is still in bad shape, I hear, thanks to widening, so that is a worse alternative.

While browsing through google maps, I came across the following route:

Unknown road to Trichy - Chennai Trunk Rd - Google Maps

This avoids Musiri. And I am sure, there wont be any trucks. But how is this route? Has anyone tried it? (Distance wise, google says on 12Km more; 78 versus 90).