[jraj]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Interesting route - quite a dicovery that the Salem-Uttangarai-Vaniyambadi road is in good condition, only reservation would be that I would avoid that sector at night.

How were facilities on Salem-Vaniyambadi route?

But once widening of NH47 between Coimbattore and Salem via Avinashi, Perundurai and Chittode is over, maybe I would go back to the original road.

Another interesting idea is that once widening work is over, it may be a better idea to go to Salem on NH47, then switch over to Uttanagari and go via Tiruvannamalai, Gingee and Tindivanam to Madras, since NH45 from Tindivanam is double roaded and there is very litttle traffic on NH66 beween Uttangarai and Tindivanam. How were the drives through Sathy, Gobi, Tirupattur and smaller towns, since I am sure there were no bypasses?

Just a few corrections, if I may. You join "NH 47" att Chittode, not "NH 7" and at Vaniyambadi, it is "NH 46" and not "NH 4".

Kumar sir:You are right.I did mess on the NH numbers.
Drive thru small towns was ok.Not much traffic and you could get out soon.As far as facilities,if you are talking about fuel stations or hotels then you have them in those small towns.I am not sure why you said you would avoid that route during night.I ask this because my friend who suggested me this route prefers this route very much during night as there is virtually no traffic at all.Its a breeze in the night.I think ARC travels which operates omni bus between Coimbatore-Chennai uses this route.The advantage with this route is that not many are aware that the roads are good in this sector.Once the news spreads,I guess we are back to square one again :-)

[hvkumar]

Night driving - a little wary because of old Naxal connections in Tirupattur region, plus heard of stories of highway robberies in that areas. Plus, not being on main highways always means even less facilities at night.

[pypkmsrikanth]

Had posted this yesterday but is not showing in the forum

@ Jraj - Actually you could take the Coimbatore - Sathyamangalam - Athani - Andhiyur - Ammapettai - Mettur - Dharmapuri - Krishnagiri - Vellore - Chennai which would allow you to completely avoid the NH 47. The Thoppur - Krishnagiri is much better these days with a lot of stretches on new roads.

@ HVK The stretch between Uttangarai and Chengam used to be bad for almost a year and a half, dont know the status now, but when its good you could do the Uttangarai - Tindivanam in about 2 hours and 15 minutes of sedate driving comfortably. I have done Tiruvannamalai - Krishnagiri in about 90 minutes when the roads were very good. I dont think Naxals are an issue anymore in this part of Tamil Nadu. Because of the increase in bus traffic between Tirupathur & Harur I think its OK to take the stretch during night times.