[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Am taking this route tomorrow and I DONT have a GPS. Hope the routes are okay!

Hi, did you travel to Tiruvannamalai and what route did you take? Comments about this road and any key points I should keep in mind would be much appreciated.

Planning to do Bangalore - TV Malai next weekend in my new Sunny !

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by aroonanand

Hi, did you travel to Tiruvannamalai and what route did you take? Comments about this road and any key points I should keep in mind would be much appreciated.

Planning to do Bangalore - TV Malai next weekend in my new Sunny !

Route: Bangalore-Karimangalam-Morappur-Harur-Thanipadi-Thiruvannamalai.

SH 60 A after Krishnagiri, then onto 6A (Tiruvannamalai-Harur Road)

Do not take the regular Pondy road. IT IS HELL ON EARTH.

[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Route: Bangalore-Karimangalam-Morappur-Harur-Thanipadi-Thiruvannamalai.

SH 60 A after Krishnagiri, then onto 6A (Tiruvannamalai-Harur Road)

Do not take the regular Pondy road. IT IS HELL ON EARTH.

Many thanks for the prompt response and your advice against the Pondy road; So I basically take the Bangalore - Salem National highway into Krishnagiri town and then take SH 60A from Krishnagiri and then into SH 6A from Harur to lead me into TV Malai - correct me if I am wrong.

How long did it take to do this drive from Blr and does this road have any rib breaking craters or huge potholes?

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Route: Bangalore-Karimangalam-Morappur-Harur-Thanipadi-Thiruvannamalai.

SH 60 A after Krishnagiri, then onto 6A (Tiruvannamalai-Harur Road)

Do not take the regular Pondy road. IT IS HELL ON EARTH.

That's a 40KM difference. How long does it take in this SH60 route? And hows the traffic? Is it good for a consistent 60+??

[ampere]

Originally Posted by mjothi

That's a 40KM difference. How long does it take in this SH60 route? And hows the traffic? Is it good for a consistent 60+??

I think on the whole its a pretty decent road. You can do 60+ easily except for the
towns/villages. So you slow down frequently due to an approaching village,

But I think still its worth taking this option compared to Chengam/Uthangarai.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by aroonanand

Many thanks for the prompt response and your advice against the Pondy road; So I basically take the Bangalore - Salem National highway into Krishnagiri town and then take SH 60A from Krishnagiri and then into SH 6A from Harur to lead me into TV Malai - correct me if I am wrong.

How long did it take to do this drive from Blr and does this road have any rib breaking craters or huge potholes?

Originally Posted by mjothi

That's a 40KM difference. How long does it take in this SH60 route? And hows the traffic? Is it good for a consistent 60+??

Originally Posted by ampere

I think on the whole its a pretty decent road. You can do 60+ easily except for the
towns/villages. So you slow down frequently due to an approaching village,

But I think still its worth taking this option compared to Chengam/Uthangarai.

I started at 5.30 in the morning (from banaswadi) and was at Tiruvannamalai by 10.00 including a stop for 15 minutes (had an appointment at 9 which I was trying to make to). Roads were BRILLIANT. That extra 40k was not noticeable at all. I was nipping at 100 most of the time. Since I was driving a Swift Petrol this time, I was quite wary of mileage concerns and had to go easy on the throttle and be smoother.

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by aroonanand

Many thanks for the prompt response and your advice against the Pondy road; So I basically take the Bangalore - Salem National highway into Krishnagiri town and then take SH 60A from Krishnagiri and then into SH 6A from Harur to lead me into TV Malai - correct me if I am wrong.

Please see my post#119 in one of the previous pages. In short, no need to enter Krishnagiri town but just continue on the bye-pass/highway towards Dharmapuri/Salem. You need to take a left after about 20 kms; I think it was just after Karimangalam exit to your right.

Be sure of NOT having any decent toilet facilities in any of the small hotels that you will find beyond Krishnagiri till you reach Tiruvannamalai in this route, and even the normal Pondy route. Food maybe manageable and perhaps not an issue at all for about 2 hours while you will be in the 2L road once you exit NH-7

[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by ajithbr

Please see my post#119 in one of the previous pages. In short, no need to enter Krishnagiri town but just continue on the bye-pass/highway towards Dharmapuri/Salem. You need to take a left after about 20 kms; I think it was just after Karimangalam exit to your right.

Be sure of NOT having any decent toilet facilities in any of the small hotels that you will find beyond Krishnagiri till you reach Tiruvannamalai in this route, and even the normal Pondy route. Food maybe manageable and perhaps not an issue at all for about 2 hours while you will be in the 2L road once you exit NH-7

Thanks for the input - will go through your earlier post and keep the Karimangalam exit in mind when I drive down.

Originally Posted by Red Liner

I started at 5.30 in the morning (from banaswadi) and was at Tiruvannamalai by 10.00 including a stop for 15 minutes (had an appointment at 9 which I was trying to make to). Roads were BRILLIANT. That extra 40k was not noticeable at all. I was nipping at 100 most of the time. Since I was driving a Swift Petrol this time, I was quite wary of mileage concerns and had to go easy on the throttle and be smoother.

Sounds like a smooth drive indeed - thanks.

[ajithbr]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

I started at 5.30 in the morning (from banaswadi) and was at Tiruvannamalai by 10.00 including a stop for 15 minutes (had an appointment at 9 which I was trying to make to). Roads were BRILLIANT. That extra 40k was not noticeable at all. I was nipping at 100 most of the time. Since I was driving a Swift Petrol this time, I was quite wary of mileage concerns and had to go easy on the throttle and be smoother.

I believe you went from Harur(cutting Tiruppatur->Salem road) to TVMalai via Theerthamalai only. There is the famous Theerthagireeshwara(Lord Shiva) temple in this town and the 30 ft perennial waterfal RamaTheertham (Lord Rama unleashed an arrow into the rocky slope here since Hanuman/Anjaneya did not reach in time collection Ganga water for Pooja). The 9-day annual festival at the temple is in the month of March(around MahaSivaRathri occassion) and since there is heavy influx of devotees from all places, the roads in this region, esp. from the other Siva temple town Tiruvannamalai, is patched up to an EXCELLENT status. The last few years more so because of the poor conditions of the alternate routes, most of which overlaps with Krishnagiri->Tiruvannamalai stretch.

[Fauji]

So this route via Harur is the best route also for folks going to Pondy as well. Correct?

How is the road beyond Tiruvannamalai till Pondy via Ginjee and Tindivananm?

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Fauji

So this route via Harur is the best route also for folks going to Pondy as well. Correct?

How is the road beyond Tiruvannamalai till Pondy via Ginjee and Tindivananm?

If you are bored of the standard Cheyyar/Vandavasi road, then you can take this.
Distance wise its 40km lesser. However the route via Arcot is much better.

Route Via Harur

Route via Arcot/Cheyyar/Vandavasi

[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

I started at 5.30 in the morning (from banaswadi) and was at Tiruvannamalai by 10.00 including a stop for 15 minutes

Originally Posted by ajithbr

Please see my post#119 in one of the previous pages. In short, no need to enter Krishnagiri town but just continue on the bye-pass/highway towards Dharmapuri/Salem. You need to take a left after about 20 kms; I think it was just after Karimangalam exit to your right.

Redliner, Ajithbr, Many thanks for your tips and I did a comfortable trip to Tiruvannamalai over the weekend..

For the benefit of everyone, here's the route I took

Onward: Left my residence on Sarjapur Road ~ 1030 AM and the route I took was Sarjapur - Attibele - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Karimangalam - Morappur - Harur - Theerthamalai - Thanipadi - Tiruvannamalai

Crusied ~ 100-110 kmph till the Karimangalam byepass after which I took a left into the road leading to Morappur. The State Highway from Karimangalam to TV Malai is in pretty good condition with no real craters or bad stretches. One thing to note is that a lot of patch work has been done recently and not all of this is done smoothly, so there will be a few places where the car will be bumpy. I maintained speeds of ~80-90 kmph on this stretch. Would not recommended very high speed driving for this reason as well as the fact that there are many villages enroute where there will be a need to slow down frequently .

Reached TVMalai by 3PM, including a 15-20 minute break for coffee at Krishna Cafe (between Hosur and Krishnagiri).

Did ask around with locals a couple of times for the directions, typically within villages where roads are not very well marked (Harur for instance).

Return: Took the same route; left TV Malai by 3 PM and reached my residence by 745 PM after a 40 minute dinner break at Kamat before Hosur. Again a smooth ride overall, however a few irritating slow moving trucks trying to overtake slower ones on the Krishnagiri - Hosur stretch was annoying.

Stayed at Nala Residency in TV Malai - decent double bedded AC rooms for INR 1100 a night.. They have a covered basement car park too.

Did the drive on my new Sunny which returned a mileage of ~21.2 kmpl for the drive, with 4 passengers and AC used throughout the journey !!

[xotiq]

Originally Posted by ampere

If you are bored of the standard Cheyyar/Vandavasi road, then you can take this.
Distance wise its 40km lesser. However the route via Arcot is much better.

Route Via Harur

Route via Arcot/Cheyyar/Vandavasi

Need your help here. For pondicherry, which of the above route works best?

Your option of Route via harur shows 352kms on Google maps. Is this route in good condition beyond tiruvannamalai till gingee, pondy.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by xotiq

Need your help here. For pondicherry, which of the above route works best?

Your option of Route via harur shows 352kms on Google maps. Is this route in good condition beyond tiruvannamalai till gingee, pondy.

It is definitely in good condition. But over all I still think you would be
more comfortable taking the Arcot route. The main positive there is you get to bypass all towns including Tindivanam
(except Vandavasi) and also most of the good 4-lane roads.

The one via Harur/Tiruvannamalai is a good route, but it has its own rough edges, slowing down at villages etc.
Beyond Tiruvannamalai it again is good via Gingee. But it still you would driving on a 2 lane road which would have traffic.

On the other hand, in case of Arcot to Tindivanam by-pass, (which is the 2-lane section) traffic would be much less.

[xotiq]

Originally Posted by ampere

It is definitely in good condition. But over all I still think you would be
more comfortable taking the Arcot route. The main positive there is you get to bypass all towns including Tindivanam
(except Vandavasi) and also most of the good 4-lane roads.

The one via Harur/Tiruvannamalai is a good route, but it has its own rough edges, slowing down at villages etc.
Beyond Tiruvannamalai it again is good via Gingee. But it still you would driving on a 2 lane road which would have traffic.

On the other hand, in case of Arcot to Tindivanam by-pass, (which is the 2-lane section) traffic would be much less.

Thanks amp.

The roads were pretty good, and took 6 hours of driving time. Most stretches are fresh tarmac, narrow roads, but overall fun to drive.

Route->>
Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Karimangalam (turn left before flyover starts)- Morappur-Theerthamalai-Tiruvannamalai-Tindivanam-Puducherry

Bangalore, Karnataka, India to Puducherry, Pondicherry, India - Google Maps