[hrag]

Am driving down my favourite NH4 from Bangalore to Chennai tomorrow morning - will post updates tomorrow.

[csentil]

yeah... please update on the status of the 4 laning and the stupid culvert diversions that pop up from nowhere.

[hrag]

4 laning in full swing between Narasapura bypass (just after the Ayyappa temple) and only upto the start of Mulbagilu bypass. Expect to do lane changes every few km. After Mulbagilu bypass, it is business as usual.AP sector is a mess after Palamneru town. Some road patchwork has been done in Bangarupalem - road is bumpy. From here until AP-TN border is downright dangerous even in the daytime. Hit a huge pothole just after the Naraharipeta checkpost. Potholes are on a downhill stretch just after a crest and not visible normally. Twisted wheel rim on the Indica.Caressed the car to Chennai (car pulled heavily to the left and wobbling vanished only above 120 kph) and posting from Concorde now.New lower arm and possibly new wheel rim. Will update with pictures after delivery. With this adventure & 2 halts (30 min. at Woodys Kolara and 15 min at IOC Chittoor), Hebbal to Thiruvanmiyur took 6 hours.Route rating: Avoid at night and be very very careful in the day. Overall, avoid if possible in current state. KSRTC drivers are absolute rogues.

[csentil]

Looks like I'll have to avoid the road then. Howz the road till Chittoor. Friends are planning to go to Tirupathi. They were asking me for road conditions. Would you suggest they take the longer detour through Vellore using GQ and avoid NH4

[hrag]

The absolute dangerous stretches are after the Palamneru ghat section. Once you cross that, the road is suddenly cut (please refer previous pages of this thread for diversions) - those works are complete and the road has not been relaid. The sad part is all this is before Chittoor which means if you take the NH4 route to Tirupati, you cannot avoid these. If you are not doing very high speeds, you can stick to this route.

For Tirupati, yes, GQ route is better and safer though longer. If this means passing through Naraharipeta (I think it will), ask your friends to be very careful after crossing into AP.

An alternative I can think of (longer route) is NH4 upto Palamneru and then detour to Punganuru, Madanapalle and hit NH205 (there's another thread where I've detailed Madanapalle town - can't find it now). There is also a road from Punganuru to NH18 (making the detour shorter) but I've not been on that road.

One route I've taken in the past is: Bangalore - Hosakote - Chintamani - Rayalpadu - Madanapalle - Pileru - Tirupati. Used to be bad in the Chintamani sector (don't know current state) but a breeze from Madanapalle onwards.

Yet another alternative is Kolara - Srinivaspura - Madanapalle. The main road through Srinivaspura put an OTR trail to shame when I saw it last but things may have improved.

[magesh_kumar]

it has been a nice update for the bangalore chittor route to chennai

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by hrag

Hit a huge pothole just after the Naraharipeta checkpost. Twisted wheel rim on the Indica.Caressed the car to Chennai (car pulled heavily to the left and wobbling vanished only above 120 kph) and posting from Concorde now.New lower arm and possibly new wheel rim. Will update with pictures after delivery.

Thats bad. I was thinking of trying this stretch in Dec-Jan. But seems I need to forget these route once for all. GQ - Zindabad!!!

Thanks for the constant update Hrishi.

Do post us the picture of the rims.

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by hrag

...Hit a huge pothole just after the Naraharipeta checkpost. Potholes are on a downhill stretch just after a crest and not visible normally. Twisted wheel rim on the Indica.Caressed the car to Chennai (car pulled heavily to the left and wobbling vanished only above 120 kph) and posting from Concorde now.New lower arm and possibly new wheel rim....

Ouch....that was really unfortunate.

Werent you taking a risk, running it at 120 kmph after this ?

[hrag]

OT:
The front LHS wheel was closer to the mudflap than the front RHS. However, I didn't run the entire stretch at 120 after the incident. The wobbling was very high at low speeds and manageable around 80. I touched 120 briefly only to see at what speed the wobbling disappeared. But yes, it was risky.

Overall, I was very lucky that the damage was not worse.

[hrag]

NH4 update between Bangalore & Ranipet:

The diversion through Narasapura town in November turned out to be a damp squib - only one side of a small stretch has been relaid on Narasapura bypass.

There's a new Cafe Coffee Day outlet at the HP bunk at the end of Narasapura bypass (where one sees the "Woody's - 10 minutes away" sign). This is the second one complementing the CCD outlet after Kolara bypass.

Underpasses are planned for all the cross roads on Kolara bypass - so expect to see mini diversions / chicanes marked by white drums with red paint on them!

Diversions now begin at Jalappa Hospital / Medical College - just after Woody's Kolara. Diversions end at the beginning of Mulbagilu bypass.

Road is very patchy after Bangapalem town for a few hundred metres. The dangerous stretches after Palamneru town have now been patched up - not as dangerous as earlier. Annoying truck traffic between Palamneru and Chittoor that can slow one down.

The entire stretch in AP from the end of Chittoor bypass until the TN border has been relaid EXCEPT for a small patch after Naraharipeta checkpost (where I busted my rim in November) - this small patch remains very bad and extremely dangerous. Slow down as you aproach the Naraharipeta checkpost.

Business as usual from the AP-TN border until the Ranipet bypass.

Reliance Chittoor (after the bypass as you come from BLR) has started selling petrol again - 50.48 / litre. They had a "diesel - no stock" board though.

[Fountainheader]

Thanks for the update hrag. I am planning to do Chennai-Blore on 30th Jan.

[jagan0677]

Took this road on my way to Tirupathi around Christmas. Please avoid / be careful at night. You could come across stretches of upto 10-15kms with heavy fog.
especially around the ghat section near Palamner. Hopefully the fog should be lesser around the end of the month.

[hrag]

Minor corrections to my earlier update after doing NH4 (Madras - Bangalore) last evening:

The checkpost in AP is at Gudipala, just before Naraharipeta as one travels from Ranipet.

Road is newly laid and great from the TN-AP border until the Gudipala checkpost. Post this, road laying is happening until the Chittoor bypass.

The usual business of the newly laid roads in KA being about 4 inches above the old road carries on. It will be a while until all these stabilize.

[hrag]

Towards Madras:
Road after Walajahpet (Samudram) toll plaza is being re-laid. Affected stretches tonight started at Periyakarambur, passed through Ocheri and ended at Kalathur.

Towards Bangalore:
Traffic towards Madras is diverted to RHS lane of this direction. Starts at Kalathur (identified by the town name sign + "Canara Bank ATM ahead" sign), passes through Ocheri and ends at Periyakarambur.

In either direction, NH4 through Ocheri town is a mess thanks to this. Be ready for minor traffic jams. Expect travel times to extend by 30 minutes if using NH4 between Sriperumbudur & Ranipettai.

[hrag]

2 new restaurants have opened on NH4 just before the railway overbridge that leads to Arakkonam (exactly 6 km after the L&T factory when coming from Chennai) - Kanaka Sarovar and Satya Ganapathy Veg A/C- will need exploring.