[himanshugoswami]

Hi,

I plan to drive down to bangalore for Christmas and new year. Wanted to check if nayone has done this route recently and what is the condition o fhte road.

Last I drove on this road was in June when I drove my baleno down from bangalore and the road was generally very good but there was a lot of 4 laning work going on, hence the highway was mostly two lanes.

what is the status of the 4 laning? has the work finished or nearing completion and is the highway still 2 lanes?

I will be driving down in my Safari and in case anyone is planning to go to bangalore around the same time, PM me and we can do a convoy. I will be going on the 22nd or 23rd.

[reignofchaos]

I did it around 3 months ago. The 4 laning is still not done. At many places there are diversions for which you need to be careful. The condition of the road was pretty okay on the Andhra side but quite bad on the Karnataka side. Post rains, I'm guessing it'll be even worse.

Please do not do this stretch at night. There are some wreckless and potentially drunk volvo drivers that drive on this road. It took me roughly 8 hours 30 mins to do the distance, including a stop at one of the reliance A1 plazas.

[rocksterraghu]

I drove 3 weeks ago and traveled again last week. The roads are simply HORRIBLE. If you still want to drive, please do it in the day - the potholes are too deep and at unexpected places.

As far as I remember, Hyderabad to Mahbubnagar was fairly decent. After that the road got bad for sometime, but after Kurnool or Gooty it was horrendous. Not that the road is continuously bad, but you never know when a terrible patch will come.

[contactme27]

hey himanshugoswami - you still can travel on the road. Now that you have the big bull, you should not think twice. Go ahead. Be careful once you enter Karnataka border.

[jassi]

any updates on this route apart from the one 3 weeks ago by rockster - i was planning in my santro but from bangy to hyd on one of the upcoming weekends - do u think its too bad for a santro

-j

[snaronikar]

What I heard from my friend who just came y'day is the condition is still same (bad). Maybe they will take up the improvement work in due course. Better to avoid this route.

[jassi]

and there are no alternate but clean routes between bangy n hyd ??

[black12rr]

I dont know how the NH 7 is , but I did Bellary - hangal-challakere-hiriyur(nh4 from now on) -sira -tumkur -nelamagala-blore one week back .

Bellary to hiriyur is superb , perfect banking everywhere , except the rumble strips .From hiriyur again its perfect NH4 till blore .

You have take a deviation from kurnool and come to bellary . BTW I dont know how is the road condition from kurnool to Bellary .But Bellary to Bangalore no problem . This would be little long .

Here is Bellary to blore road .A Must do road .

[condor]

But if you want to do HYD-BLR, you dont have much choice unless you take a round-about route.

Had recently done the last 120 odd km on this road, towards BLR. Work is in progress here, so you will be using the old un-divided 2 lane highway in this section. The road is often a little rough, but not too much of a concern.

Once you reach the outskirts (Devanahalli surroundings) it's usual semi-urban traffic. After Jakkur / Yalahanka Sat. town, the road is good, but with city traffic.

[dicorex4x4]

Did Thummalakunta - Bangalore yesterday afternoon on NH7. Thummalakunta is where one turns off to Puttaparthi. An update on road conditions:

Lots of road work / 4 laning in progress almost all the way upto Chikkaballapur. Night time is doable but risky.

Most of the S curves are being straightened and in some sections, you can drive on the newly laid roads (billiard table smooth). Chaotic traffic near Kodikonda (AP checkpost) and the AP-KA border is unrecognizable now. As condor says, road is rough but nothing a Safari cannot handle easily.

Semi-urban traffic starts just before Chikkaballapur - lots of tractors doing 10 kph (moving speedbreakers!).

About 10 km south of Chikkaballapur, the 4 lane road begins and except for one small stretch near the Devanahalli airport turn off, roads are good.

The bridge near ITC factory is also undergoing some maintenance - 1 lane on the bridge is closed.

Karnataka's patented unmarked speedbreakers are present - watch out for speed signs saying 30. 2 of these in a row and you can be sure there's a speedbreaker ahead.