[narayan]

completed the tvm-chennai stretch. it was a far far better drive than expected. as mentioned in this thread, after crossing Nagercoil, roads are very good.

started from tvm at 5am and reached home at thiruvanmiyur by 530pm with a total break time of 1.5-2 hrs. was mostly holding speeds of 110-120kmph on the i10. car feels solid even at these speeds.

madurai bypass was a slightly bad stretch. there was also a toll collection by some locals in the name of madurai corporation. wonder whether its a legal toll collection booth.

[bijujj]

continuing information on where we can take break/hotels.

I drove back from Chennai yesterday. I found most of the petrol bunks have usable toilets. You can use these for the 'bio' breaks.

I started at 5.45 from Chennai and reached TVM 5:30 PM.

Breakfast was taken near Tindivanam. Couple of ok hotels are there.

Lunch taken towards end of NH-45B. There are couple of hotels adjacent to Indian Oil and HP pertrol bunks on either side of the highway. Another place could be, after taking the Madurai bypass, just at the junction where Rameswaram road goes to the left, you can see a hotel "Rajbhavans". From the appearance, it looks an ok hotel, though I did not go there.

Timewise, I think 11:30 to 12:30 hours, we can cover this distance, with 1 hr break and speed never not exceeding 120.

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by narayan

madurai bypass was a slightly bad stretch. there was also a toll collection by some locals in the name of madurai corporation. wonder whether its a legal toll collection booth.

The toll collected by Corporation is legal as this byepass is not part of the NHAI network, which is the reason it is 2 lane and I doubt it would become 4 lane in the near future. When I used the byepass in the first week of October I did not find it so bad except being 2 lane and traffic is reasonably high.

[leylander]

Originally Posted by ampere

I dont remember seeing any on the Trichy-Madurai 45B!
Those I thought were the best cities for breaks. But not sure of good hotels on the highway. Even I would be interested to know about them.

there is a good hotel in the trichy bypass near the starting of NH45B. it is hotel grand gardenia with the restaurant of hotel kannapa. its a pretty good place and this comes to the right side of the bypass underneath a flyover(mannarpuram flyover)

the red colour dot represents the hotel and the black line represents the new path of the bypass. this is the new road of the bypass to connect to NH45B

[ampere]

Thanks for that info. Would come in real handy.

[bijujj]

Yesterday I drove back from Trivandrum to Chennai.

Started at 5:45.
Breakfast was taken at a hotel before Nagercoil, it is just after the St Xavier Catholic college.
Checked out Rajbhavans at the beginning of the Madurai bypass. Just passable, not a great place. I still prefer the hotels near to Indian Oil bunk a little further down.

Thanks to laylander, had lunch at Kannappa restaurant in Trichy, which is a pretty decent place. I took the exit road to Trichy, went all the way to signal after the railway station and took the right road which joins NH45. After the signal this hotel comes at the rest. Please let me know if there is a better way to reach this hotel.

Reached Chennai at 6:15PM

[shapath]

As per google map, it shows Tirumangalam,Rajapalayam,Sankarankovil and Madathara to reach Tivandrum and distance is about 704km from chennai where as when i specified to take virudhunagar, Thirulnelveli , Nagerkoil it shows 758km from chennai
Any reason that google map avoids Thirulnelveli and Nagerkoil.
For someone who is new to this stretch which is better. Thanks.

refer pic attached.

[leylander]

Originally Posted by bijujj

Yesterday I drove back from Trivandrum to Chennai.

Started at 5:45.
Breakfast was taken at a hotel before Nagercoil, it is just after the St Xavier Catholic college.
Checked out Rajbhavans at the beginning of the Madurai bypass. Just passable, not a great place. I still prefer the hotels near to Indian Oil bunk a little further down.

Thanks to laylander, had lunch at Kannappa restaurant in Trichy, which is a pretty decent place. I took the exit road to Trichy, went all the way to signal after the railway station and took the right road which joins NH45. After the signal this hotel comes at the rest. Please let me know if there is a better way to reach this hotel.

Reached Chennai at 6:15PM

i guess you didnt take the new bypass. you would have taken the exit to trichy near the place were the new by pass road starts(i've marked this place in black in the map a couple of posts before) you should proceed in the new bypass a few more kms to take the next exit to trichy which comes right before the flyover(this comes right after a ROB). will try to come up with a few pics of this in a couple of days.

[nairrk]

Originally Posted by shapath

As per google map, it shows Tirumangalam,Rajapalayam,Sankarankovil and Madathara to reach Tivandrum and distance is about 704km from chennai where as when i specified to take virudhunagar, Thirulnelveli , Nagerkoil it shows 758km from chennai
Any reason that google map avoids Thirulnelveli and Nagerkoil.
For someone who is new to this stretch which is better. Thanks.

refer pic attached.

Normal route is via Madurai, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, TVM.
Better check how the roads are in the new route (rajapalayam,madathara, vithura, nedumangad, tvm) recommended by Google??

[hvkumar]

shapath, the route you have indicated in the GM is probaby the path taken by elephants in TN having a get-together with their cousins in the TN side. Did not know that GM also had a elephant path directory!

There is NO road as indicated by you from Rajapalayam to Vithura.

The only road is from Madurai via Srivilliputtur, Rajapalayam, Tenkasi, Schencottah, Aryankavu, Tenmala, Palode & Nedumangad.

[shapath]

Thanks for the replies.

Respected HVK- you said "elephants in TN having a get-together with their cousins in the TN side".
I like elephants....but 'Happy to be a spectator rather than a 'party' member with their get-together

[shapath]

After reading Mr HVK route i 'again' checked Google map for Chennai to Trivandrum and this is their default route/map.

pic attached from Madurai to Trivandrum.

[hvkumar]

shapath, that is also wrong. The default route has to be NH7-NH47 via Nagercoil.

[sbkumar]

Originally Posted by shapath

After reading Mr HVK route i 'again' checked Google map for Chennai to Trivandrum and this is their default route/map.

Please add Nagercoil as an intermediate destination. What you get should be the best route.

[pypkmsrikanth]

This route is a non starter.

Though in paper there exists a road which connects Kulasekaram to Kodayar the road does not exist. One can go only upto Manimuthar falls from Kallidaikurichi post which you have to take forest department's permission to go. It is a single lane ghat road. When I last went I was told I need to schedule atleast two and a half hours one way from Manimutharu to Kuthirai Vetti which is about 10 kms before Kodayar. Beyond Kudirai Vetti you need TNEB permission to reach Kodayar.