[srb]

Thanks Roaming Rao and everybody else ,

My friend and myself had been to Mantralaya between March 14th to 16th,2009 . My friend was driving his brand new Maruthi SX4 and I was driving my ever faithful Santro . It was a good drive all thro .
Road conditions :
- Bangalore to Gooty is very good though there are frequent road diversions
- Gooty to Adoni : Generally good road with stretchs of big potholes . Be watchful and check with local people when in doubt. There are multiple junction points with no sign boards.
- Adoni to Mantralaya(via Yemmiganur) : Generally good with patches of bad roads.There are multiple junction points with no sign boards.

Overall a very decent and enjoyable drive and could maintain a average of 50-60 Kms . Covered the distance between my house in Bangalore to Mantralaya(392 Kms) in around 9.5 hours with 2 big breaks for lunch and breakfast(30-45 minutes) and one small breaks of 15 minutes.

- Should carry lots of water while driving on this road
- This road seems to be example of what road development means to the road side trees ! . There are absoultely no road side trees at all and if you want to stop by for a brief rest you would need really hunt for shade !
- There is a big Isckon temple near Ananthpur( After Anathpur town) which is worth a visit .
- I could not notice any petrol bunks on the Gooty-Adoni road stretch and the Adoni-Mantralaya stretch . So if you are running low of fuel and want to fill up your tanks , do so in before getting into these stretchs.

[roamingrao]

My pleasure, srb.

Glad that you all had a good trip and hope you had a satisfying darshan !

Infact, we all owe many thanks to this wonderful forum which enables us to share information which would not have been possible a few years back !

We still remember - we used to blindly start on trips not knowing road conditions, route directions and general information of the place we plan to visit. But now, thanks to TBHP, we can actually plan our holidays !!

Thanks Team-BHP, we could only contribute more to get back more !

Jai ho !

[sridharp77]

Has anyone recently traveled to Mantralaya from Bangalore. If yes kindly request you to post the road conditions. I am planning to go there during the month end.

[sridharp77]

Came back from a trip to Mantralaya in my Punto. I started from Bangalore on Friday 4th September at about 6:00 AM and reached Mantralaya at around 1:30 AM. The road condition till Gooty is good but from there to Mantralaya the road is not all that good, and at some place it is very bad. From Gooty I went to Adoni and then from there to Madhavaram and then to Mantralaya. I stayed overnight in Mantralaya and then next day started back to Bangalore at 11:00 AM. On the way back I also visited the Panchamuki Hanuman Temple. The road to the Panchamuki temple is just ok. Started back to Bangalore at 12:30 and reached Gooty by around 2:30 PM. The good news is that while returning back to Bangalore there was lot of road taring work on the Mantralaya - Gooty stretch. So hopefully the road conditions will improve. Had lunch at gooty and then started back to Bangalore. Total distance covered was 850 Kms.

[roamingrao]

Thanks for the update Sridharp77. Hope you had a good darshan at Mantralaya and Panchamukhi temples.

Good to know Gooty - Mantralaya road is being repaired. We drove on this road in Jan 2009 and was then going bad - huge potholes on road edges and was wondering when it could be repaired again ! Now that it is being repaired, we can expect faster drives to Mantralaya.

On the Gooty - Bangalore stretch of NH7, 4 laning was on between Anantpur and Bangalore. Has the gooty - anantpur stretch being taken up ? Once the 4 laning is complete we could drive to Mantralaya in the range of 6 hours.

Thanks again,

Regards, Rao

[ajaysurfs]

On the weekend, i did BLR-Mantralayam-BLR trip in my Linea - Diesel. Started early on Friday at 06:00 and reached the SRS mutt at 13:00 with 2 breaks of 15 mins. The route was the usual BLR-Gooty (NH7) - Adoni - Madhavaram - Mantralayam. The road till Gooty is pretty good (of course with lot of diversions - some through villages) and i did spurts of 140 Kmph frequently. The Bangalore side of NH7 is pretty boring with hell lot of speed breakers at an average distance of 1-1.5 kms (village crossings). I've not seen any good restaurants on the whole stretch. Anyways we carried our tiffin box and water. I found the road from Gooty to Madhavaram decent enough - could drive at speeds of 80-100 kmph. However there's a stretch of road (may be 15-20 kms) between Adoni and Madhavaram (close to Madhavaram) which is very narrow and has big cuts on the sides (around a feet). 2 vehicles can just pass and the very thought of getting down on this road gave me jitters, especially given the GC of Linea. Fortunately all big vehicles - tractors, buses, trucks give you way.
Given that it was a weekend, there were not many private vehicles plying on the route (Gooty-Mantralayam). I could only find AP state buses, Diesel Ricks and Tata ace- the passenger ones. I think people prefer the rail route.
We stayed there in Brindavan Gardens guest house (150 Rs per night). It is clean and decent. I had to wait for sometime as people vacated their rooms after lunch. We did darshan and had prasadam at night at the annapoorna dining hall. They charge a nominal fee of Rs2/head during night. The food was imli rice and curd rice. I found Hotel Sreenivasa pretty good for the quality of food. It's on the main road of Mantralayam.

Due to heavy floods last year, the bridge over river Tungabhadra has been washed away. So dropped the idea of seeing Meditation place. Although there are small coracles taking you to the other side.

Was planning to go to Hampi (around 170 kms) while returning to BLR, but dropped the idea. Started to BLR at 09:15 on Sunday and reached home at 17:00. On the way, on the BIAL road got fined for overspeeding (94.3 KMPH) and had to donate 300 bucks!

I think on the way back you can also visit Puttuparthi, taking diversion from Penukonda.

[roamingrao]

Yes ajay, there is hardly any traffic from Mantralaya to Gooty - blame it on the defunct Tungabhadra bridge near Madhavaram - totally written off after the floods of Oct 2, 2009. People from Raichur and neighbouring districts now take the Bellary route to reach Gooty / Bangalore.

Pray that you did not attempt visiting Hampi - we were not so lucky. After our Mantralaya darshan on Jan 1st, we drove to hampi via Adoni, Hagari and Bellary. The roads were good after Adoni but roads near the border and inside Karnataka was pathetic - to say the least. It seemed the roads are not maintained for years ! and no signs of future repairs either ! Starting from Mantralaya at 7.30am, we could reach Hampi at 11.30am - it was frustrating !

Hampi is an altogether different world though !! Lost ourselves for two days !

Drove back to Bangalore NH13 / NH4 - Hospet - Chitradurga - Tumkur - good roads throughout. NH13 is recently patched up and work is still on .

Road photos :

[maximus.]

Hello, Can anyone please advise what is the current road conditions from Bangalore to Mantralaya.Planning to do the trip next week, any suggestions on routes & restaurants on the way will be appreciated.

[roamingrao]

Originally Posted by maximus.

Hello, Can anyone please advise what is the current road conditions from Bangalore to Mantralaya.Planning to do the trip next week, any suggestions on routes & restaurants on the way will be appreciated.

Hi maximus,

Bangalore to Gooty ( 276 kms ) on NH 7 is a smooth drive with some diversions near Anantapur for 4 laning work.

Gooty to Mantralayam ( 125 kms ) via Adoni and Madhavaram is a undivided single lane road rough and patchy at certain places - done in two and half hours. Adoni to Madhavaram is narrow and overtaking tractors / slow moving vehicles without stepping out of tarmac is difficult. Have not tried adoni to mantralayam via yemmiganur.

Very few options for having decent food along the route unless you venture inside Anantapur. From bangalore, there is a Kamat ghar dhaba just after chikaballapur byepass. Suggest leave early ( < 6am ), have breakfast at ghar dhaba and target Mantralayam for lunch.

Hope this helps..

[reddy6980]

Expect a lot of traffic at Gooty RS because of some strike by the Lorry owners.

If u find any blockage there ask the locals they will guide u in alternate routes which will bypass the blockage and u will get back to the orginal route or follow any KSRTC buses.

Note:This bloackge was on friday and continued till monday(12 july), no idea of present staus.

[maximus.]

Many thanks for your valueble inputs.Will take the route advised by roamingrao.

[maximus.]

Originally Posted by reddy6980

Expect a lot of traffic at Gooty RS because of some strike by the Lorry owners.

If u find any blockage there ask the locals they will guide u in alternate routes which will bypass the blockage and u will get back to the orginal route or follow any KSRTC buses.

Note:This bloackge was on friday and continued till monday(12 july), no idea of present staus.

Thanks you very much for the headsup.

[maximus.]

I have plans of visiting temples near Raichur. Please provide an update on the Bridge which connects AP & Karnataka near Madhavaram, has it been rebulit? i read Bridge was washed away by floods last year. Please suggest any alternate routes to reach Raichur from Mantralaya.

[prasad14]

Originally Posted by maximus.

I have plans of visiting temples near Raichur. Please provide an update on the Bridge which connects AP & Karnataka near Madhavaram, has it been rebulit? i read Bridge was washed away by floods last year. Please suggest any alternate routes to reach Raichur from Mantralaya.

Any further updates on this? I reckon the bridge mentioned above is still not up?

Thanks,

[maximus.]

Originally Posted by prasad14

Any further updates on this? I reckon the bridge mentioned above is still not up?

Thanks,

I visited in July and Bridge was not up, however temporary bridge has been built to connect two banks.Its just mud road with 3 ft height and they have let river pass through pipes underneath.If water level rises, this bridge can be easily washed away.Road conditions around the river was horrible.

If anyone has travelled to mantralaya recently and have updates on the road conditions, please advise.I am planning to go during christmas holidays.