[Tharle Subba]

Did a quick trip of Mantralayam last week in my 2016 Duster. The occupants were my father and myself.

Departure - 1:30 a.m.
Arrival: 7 a.m.
Route taken: Bangalore - Anantapur - Gooty - Pattikonda - Aspari - Adoni Bypass - Yemmiganur - Mantralayam
Route conditions: The drive between Bangalore to Gooty is seamless. As elucidated by Rajiv Telang sir in earlier posts, the road between Gooty and Adoni is currently a nightmare. The craters are so wide and deep, a hatchback could easily settle in and refuse to get out! Thankfully, the roads improve drastically post Adoni bypass.
Journey time: 5:30 hours
Toll:

- Devanahalli - INR 110
- Bagepalli - INR 115
- Marur - INR 140
- Kasepalli - INR 125
- Halaharvi - INR 50

After a peaceful darshan of Guru Raghavendra Swamy, decided to start our journey back home at 12 p.m. Thanks to the horrid experience earlier in the day, we chose a different route for the return journey - via Madhavaram and Guntakal. It was a great choice as the tarmac was newly laid and had sparse traffic. With minimal works that are pending, this is head and shoulders above the Pattikonda route in terms of driving comfort.

Route taken: Mantralayam - Madhavaram- Adoni - Alur - Guntakal - Gooty - Anantapur - Bangalore

As we approached Bengaluru, the traffic piled up. Took us a good three hours from Chikkaballapur to RR Nagar. Managed to crawl home by 8:30 p.m.

Journey time: 8:30 hours with 1 hour lunch break at Gooty
Toll:
- Kasepalli - INR 60
- Marur - INR 70
- Bagepalli - INR 60
- Devanahalli - INR 55

Stats for the nerds

Total travel time - 14 hours
Fuel consumption (Petrol) - 60 litres
Total toll - INR 785

Happy driving!

[PetaWatt]

Originally Posted by Tharle Subba

Did a quick trip of Mantralayam last week in my 2016 Duster.

….

Fuel consumption (Petrol) - 60 litres

Is that 1.6L engine in your Duster? Is it manual or automatic(xtronic)?

As per my calculation you got around 12.5-13 kmpl average and I am wondering at what speed you were cruising?

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by Tharle Subba

Did a quick trip of Mantralayam last week

How did you get from Gooty to Adoni? We took Gooty-Aspari-Adoni which was decent.

It was Madhavaram route that was meh. Lot more potholes on the Madhavaram-Adoni section. The western Adoni bypass is a disaster. Adoni-Alur is great, but Alur town is another nightmare. Alur-Guntakal is decent, but you have to drive through entire Guntakal and Gooty town

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by Tharle Subba

Did a quick trip of Mantralayam last week in my 2016 Duster. The occupants were my father and myself.

I had taken an alternate route multiple times almost 10 years ago. Continue on NH, pass Gooty, cross Dhone (one extra toll post Gooty on NH) until you exit for a small village called Laddagiri. This is around the area of Veldurthi. This Laddagiri route is very narrow single lane until you hit a dirty village Gorantla en route. Sorry to say but they release sewage water on roads making deep ponds of it, occupying full road with it and making impossible to guess the depth before putting your car in it. This route takes you to Kodmuru, then continue to Yemmiganur and rest is the same adding overall 25KMs extra. Road from Kodmuru to Yemmiganur is typical two lane. I do not have any latest updates on this entire route with a possibility of widening.

Due to the super narrow road and dirty villages en route I switched back to regular Adoni route. But in current scenario of hatchback gulping potholes this route could be attempted. The narrow road is tarred but to overtake or for handling opposite side vehicle one needs to get one tyre off the road. Local autos and tractors ahead will simply add to your frustration and anxiety.

You may check my old posts for this route in this thread only.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

I had taken an alternate route multiple times almost 10 years ago.

Don't even bother, it is miserable. Kodumur-Yemmiganur is very bad. So bad that 90 km drive for Kurnool-Kodumur-Yemmiganur-Mantralayam's takes the same 2.5 hours for 140 km of Kurnool-Kodumur-Aspari-Adoni bypass-Yemmiganur-Mantralayam.

Veldurthi-Laddagiri-Kodumur is bad too. There is no value add in driving the additional distance from Gooty. The Gooty-Aspari itself was decent 60-70 kph road. Am surprised its gone bad within 4 months.

If I put everything together, I'd take Gooty-Guntakal-Alur-Adoni town-Yemmiganur-Mantralayam, which gives excellent roads between towns and the town roads itself are terrible.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by narayans80

If I put everything together, I'd take Gooty-Guntakal-Alur-Adoni town-Yemmiganur-Mantralayam, which gives excellent roads between towns and the town roads itself are terrible.

Do we need to enter Alur and Guntakal? Any hopes for bypasses?

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

Do we need to enter Alur and Guntakal? Any hopes for bypasses?

You have to enter Gooty, Guntakal, Alur and Adoni.

Gooty and Guntakal bypasses are abandoned including some inbetween sections too.
Alur - No signs of it. Town has craters that can swallow a Volvo puller
Adoni - Western bypass is horrible. Not sure how to connect from Alur to eastern bypass which you take from Aspari to Yemmiganur. This is something I'll explore next trip.

Gooty-Guntakal - Good 4-lane with incomplete sections inbetween
Guntakal-Alur is good but narrow
Alur-Adoni is a dream 2-lane road
Adoni-Yemmiganur-Mantralayam - Known good road

[Tharle Subba]

Originally Posted by PetaWatt

Is that 1.6L engine in your Duster? Is it manual or automatic(xtronic)?

As per my calculation you got around 12.5-13 kmpl average and I am wondering at what speed you were cruising?

Hi PetaWatt, I drive a 1.6L manual petrol. You are right, I got about 14 kmpl and was cruising between 95-110 kmph.

Originally Posted by narayans80

How did you get from Gooty to Adoni? We took Gooty-Aspari-Adoni which was decent.

It was Madhavaram route that was meh. Lot more potholes on the Madhavaram-Adoni section. The western Adoni bypass is a disaster. Adoni-Alur is great, but Alur town is another nightmare. Alur-Guntakal is decent, but you have to drive through entire Guntakal and Gooty town

Hi Narayan sir, on the way to Mantralayam, I took the Gooty - Aspari - Adoni route, which was terrible. Craters everywhere and lots of truck traffic. On the flip side, the Madhavaram - Adoni - Guntakal - Gooty road had better roads and lesser traffic. In fact, we crossed Alur town easily - probably because it was a Friday.

Originally Posted by narayans80

If I put everything together, I'd take Gooty-Guntakal-Alur-Adoni town-Yemmiganur-Mantralayam, which gives excellent roads between towns and the town roads itself are terrible.

I would suggest you give the Gooty - Adoni - Madhavaram route a try one of these days - hopefully before the road goes back to its earlier avtar.

Sharing some pictures from the onward journey.

[FanofXuv700]

Originally Posted by Tharle Subba

Did a quick trip of Mantralayam last week in my 2016 Duster. The occupants were my father and myself.

Departure - 1:30 a.m.
Arrival: 7 a.m.
Route taken: Bangalore - Anantapur - Gooty - Pattikonda - Aspari - Adoni Bypass - Yemmiganur - Mantralayam
Route conditions: The drive between Bangalore to Gooty is seamless. As elucidated by Rajiv Telang sir in earlier posts, the road between Gooty and Adoni is currently a nightmare. The craters are so wide and deep, a hatchback could easily settle in and refuse to get out! Thankfully, the roads improve drastically post Adoni bypass.
Journey time: 5:30 hours
Toll:

- Devanahalli - INR 110
- Bagepalli - INR 115
- Marur - INR 140
- Kasepalli - INR 125
- Halaharvi - INR 50

After a peaceful darshan of Guru Raghavendra Swamy, decided to start our journey back home at 12 p.m. Thanks to the horrid experience earlier in the day, we chose a different route for the return journey - via Madhavaram and Guntakal. It was a great choice as the tarmac was newly laid and had sparse traffic. With minimal works that are pending, this is head and shoulders above the Pattikonda route in terms of driving comfort.

Route taken: Mantralayam - Madhavaram- Adoni - Alur - Guntakal - Gooty - Anantapur - Bangalore

As we approached Bengaluru, the traffic piled up. Took us a good three hours from Chikkaballapur to RR Nagar. Managed to crawl home by 8:30 p.m.

Journey time: 8:30 hours with 1 hour lunch break at Gooty
Toll:
- Kasepalli - INR 60
- Marur - INR 70
- Bagepalli - INR 60
- Devanahalli - INR 55

Stats for the nerds

Total travel time - 14 hours
Fuel consumption (Petrol) - 60 litres
Total toll - INR 785

Happy driving!

Thanks for the details here. Helps, especially the road conditions part.

I am planning a Mantralaya trip too. Seeing this post and Rajeev T posts, looks like Blr Gooty Guntkal Adoni Yemmiganur Mantralaya is the best route ?

How is the road conditions for stretch between Adoni Yemmiganur Mantralaya ? Us this also pothole filled?

I took advise and will drive day time both ways.

[deep_bang]

I just returned from a trip from Bangalore to Mantralayam. I followed the Google-directed route Bangalore - Ananthpur - Gooty - Aspari - Adoni - Yemmiganur - Mantralayam.

It appeared that a lot of potholes are filled up now as I saw fresh black patches all over. I also did see some tar- works going on. So, it appears that atleast right now this route is reasonably good.

[FanofXuv700]

Originally Posted by deep_bang

I just returned from a trip from Bangalore to Mantralayam. I followed the Google-directed route Bangalore - Ananthpur - Gooty - Aspari - Adoni - Yemmiganur - Mantralayam.

It appeared that a lot of potholes are filled up now as I saw fresh black patches all over. I also did see some tar- works going on. So, it appears that atleast right now this route is reasonably good.

Thanks, will take this route itself then.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by deep_bang

I just returned from a trip from Bangalore to Mantralayam. I followed the Google-directed route Bangalore - Ananthpur - Gooty - Aspari - Adoni - Yemmiganur - Mantralayam.

It appeared that a lot of potholes are filled up now as I saw fresh black patches all over. I also did see some tar- works going on. So, it appears that atleast right now this route is reasonably good.

Thanks for the update, visiting next week. Will stick to the usual route as above and provide further updates.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

Thanks for the update, visiting next week. Will stick to the usual route as above and provide further updates.

Since you are a regular Mantralayam commuter, you can also try (obviously in daytime) Gooty-Guntakal-Alur-Adoni and join the regular Yemmiganur-Mantralayam and see how you feel about it

My guestimate is the route is 15-20 mins longer, since I took it from Panchamukha-Madhavaram not from Mantralayam.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Since you are a regular Mantralayam commuter, you can also try (obviously in daytime) Gooty-Guntakal-Alur-Adoni and join the regular Yemmiganur-Mantralayam and see how you feel about it

My guestimate is the route is 15-20 mins longer, since I took it from Panchamukha-Madhavaram not from Mantralayam.

Visited Mantralayam yesterday as one day trip. I always do one day visit and will try a new route only if it is very much essential due to unknowns involved and time restrictions . Will definitely try the guntakal route in near future, alway good to explore.
As mentioned by @deep_bang, the usual gooty, adoni, mantralayam road is completely patched up. I would say it is back in action now and recommended.
Only bad part is on the Pattikonda bypass where it has some bad potholes, really annoying in case you need to overtake a huge truck next to you and speed up.
Wondering why there were so many trucks yesterday both sides. I have never seen so many big trucks between adoni and gooty in decades. Looks like that entire stretch needs to be widened to accomodate that much of heavy to super heavy traffic now.

[Gurudeep BN]

Has anyone more recently taken the "Bengaluru - Ananthpur - Gooty - Aspari - Adoni - Yemmiganur - Mantralaya" route? Are the patched up roads still good?

Thank you.