[pariwar]

Did a relaxed drive to Munnar yesterday.

Route = Kanakapura-Chamarajanagara-Sathyamangalam-Karumathampatti-Karanampettai-Palladam-Udumalpettai-Munnar

Departure BLR: 0815 hrs Arrival Munnar : 1830 hrs

Road Conditions:
NH209 is still as lovely, quiet and smooth as the last forays on this stretch in the previous 8 odd months.
Annur to Karumathampatti where it joins the Salem - Coimbatore highway is also in good condition. There is a bridge being built at this intersection which means traffic and bad segment.
Karumathampatti to Karanampettai is hardly 10 kms, good road conditions other than for a small deviation @ Somanur where @ some parts the road below the railway line is HORRIBLE, it is a very very short headache only!
Palladam to Udumalpettai is once again a breeze, lovely tarmac, not much of traffic and good time can be achieved.
As soon as you enter Anaimalai tiger reserve (the chinnar border crossing between TN & KL), the road becomes pot holed and awful. Can be done by a small car too, however drop down to second gear for 13 kms is a must....that bad. As soon as the KL border is crossed the road does become much better and the twists and turns through the forest area, later on becoming tea estates as you reach Munnar is a wonderful sight to behold.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by pariwar

Did a relaxed drive to Munnar yesterday.

Route = Kanakapura-Chamarajanagara-Sathyamangalam-Karumathampatti-Karanampettai-Palladam-Udumalpettai-Munnar

Thats nice! So may be a 4/5 start means, you can be at Munnar for a late lunch with this route too.
Early start on Kanakpura road means facing high beams of trucks till Kanakpura (most of these are I think trucks making way into Bangalore)


- Any trouble at Dimbam? Because any accident/jam there can rob you off precious times.
- Is it easy to spot the exit from NH209 at Annur? Any sign guages?
- Does the bridge construction work at the GQ / SH intersection at Karumathampatti show any signs of closure?
- The railway crossing is always a problem.
- It was the same even at Perundurai. Now there is an overbrige there, and its seamless.
- Hope they do one ever bridge here as well.

[pariwar]

Originally Posted by ampere

Thats nice! So may be a 4/5 start means, you can be at Munnar for a late lunch with this route too.
Early start on Kanakpura road means facing high beams of trucks till Kanakpura (most of these are I think trucks making way into Bangalore)


- Any trouble at Dimbam? Because any accident/jam there can rob you off precious times.
- Is it easy to spot the exit from NH209 at Annur? Any sign guages?
- Does the bridge construction work at the GQ / SH intersection at Karumathampatti show any signs of closure?
- The railway crossing is always a problem.
- It was the same even at Perundurai. Now there is an overbrige there, and its seamless.
- Hope they do one ever bridge here as well.

I found that we were keeping up to the segment times when the outlined route is laid down using google maps. It is possible to plan for a late lunch at Munnar if you leave at 4/5 a.m. with just a short breakfast break.

Since I left only at 8.15, can't comment on the truck traffic/lights issues on Kanakapura Road. Traffic for me was really sparse!

The only sign at Annur junction says left for Avinashi, the left is a near U turn that you take on the other road. Somewhere further and not to far away, one needs to look out for a signboard that shows right to Karumathampatti (the straight road leads to Avinashi).

No trouble at Dimbam whatsoever! However the tea stall guy said that when the issue was hot, there was absolutely no traffic crossing the border. KSRTC buses used to come upto the border and then TN buses would take people from there to Sathy/CBE etc. The shops had closed down completely for 8 odd days. If the issue crops up once again, he said "don't even think of attempting this route". I have never encountered much of heavy vehicle traffic on the 27 hairpin bends after Dimbam and it was the same this time too.
Karumathampatti junction - the bridge @ intersection is more or less complete, however the approach sections on both sides work has to be started. No significant time loss encountered there.

Absolutely no tolls paid and very good mileage, both put together make this route very good value for money.

[hollywoodhogan]

Originally Posted by pariwar

Did a relaxed drive to Munnar yesterday.

Route = Kanakapura-Chamarajanagara-Sathyamangalam-Karumathampatti-Karanampettai-Palladam-Udumalpettai-Munnar

did you consider taking the sathyamangalam-puliampatti-avinashi-palladam route? appears to be shorter.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by hollywoodhogan

did you consider taking the sathyamangalam-puliampatti-avinashi-palladam route? appears to be shorter.

- Crossing Avinashi is a pain. That itself is a big reason not to take that route
- Secondly I dont know how easy it is to spot the Palladam road. And if you take the Tiruppur road, add one more city to cross.

[pariwar]

Originally Posted by hollywoodhogan

did you consider taking the sathyamangalam-puliampatti-avinashi-palladam route? appears to be shorter.

Yes, did consider.... However...

Originally Posted by ampere

- Crossing Avinashi is a pain. That itself is a big reason not to take that route
it is to- Secondly I dont know how easy spot the Palladam road. And if you take the Tiruppur road, add one more city to cross.

Ampere answered the query for me. Wanted to avoid Avinashi & Tiruppur!

[John]

Last week we did a Hyderabad - Salem - Thekkady trip. A few updates on the road conditions:
1. Hyderabad - Salem : excellent roads, except between Hosur and Krishnagiri where the 4 laning work is in progress and hence frequent diversions.
2. Salem - Dindigul: again, excellent road
2. Dindigul - Theni: road is in bad condition due to all the work going on and the rains have made it worse. Instead we drove along the Dindigul - Madurai road up to Nagamalai Pudukottai and then turned right towards Theni. Added another 50 kms. but saved time and avoided a bone jarring ride.

Used the Sygic - MapMyIndia map on my Samsung Galaxy for the first time. Was really impressed with the detail and accuracy.

[fast_elegance]

Planning to do a Munnar trip this Thursday. The route we are planning is

Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Thoppur (Exit NH7 and turn Right) – Mettur – Bhavani (Join NH47) – (Exit NH47) Perundurai – Chennimalai – Kangayam – Dharapuram – Udumalaipettai – Marayoor – Munnar

Found this route in a couple of threads. Is this route the best bet to reach Munnar?

We are planning to leave B'lore at 4:00 AM. How much time (approx.) will it take?

Thank you in Advance!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by fast_elegance

Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Thoppur (Exit NH7 and turn Right) – Mettur – Bhavani (Join NH47) – (Exit NH47) Perundurai – Chennimalai – Kangayam – Dharapuram – Udumalaipettai – Marayoor – Munnar

Take the regular route via Salem. After weathering the bad 4-lane between Bangalore and Krishnagiri, when the your turn comes
for the good 4-lane use, you want to divert to Mettur?

I would say take the regular Salem road. A 4AM start would get you to Salem latest by 7. And Perundurai by 8 if you dont break
in between. Much better than taking the Mettur road.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by fast_elegance

Planning to do a Munnar trip this Thursday. The route we are planning is

Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Thoppur (Exit NH7 and turn Right) – Mettur – Bhavani (Join NH47) – (Exit NH47) Perundurai – Chennimalai – Kangayam – Dharapuram – Udumalaipettai – Marayoor – Munnar

Found this route in a couple of threads. Is this route the best bet to reach Munnar?

We are planning to leave B'lore at 4:00 AM. How much time (approx.) will it take?

Thank you in Advance!

I second Ampere' route.Mettur route is bad unless you have a reason to go via that route..Blr-munnar should take you around 8hours.If your hotel is in Chinnakanal then go via dindigul-theni route,else stick to Ampere's route

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by fast_elegance

Planning to do a Munnar trip this Thursday. The route we are planning is

Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Thoppur (Exit NH7 and turn Right) – Mettur – Bhavani (Join NH47) – (Exit NH47) Perundurai – Chennimalai – Kangayam – Dharapuram – Udumalaipettai – Marayoor – Munnar

Found this route in a couple of threads. Is this route the best bet to reach Munnar?

We are planning to leave B'lore at 4:00 AM. How much time (approx.) will it take?

Thank you in Advance!

This was a good route some years ago but I would go with Ampere's suggestion. Go on a route where the road surfaces are good.

[fast_elegance]

Thank you all!!

I will go by your suggestions and take the Salem route

I am going beyond E-city for the 1st time on this highway. Any suggestions or preacautions that I need to take?

[NPV]

Originally Posted by fast_elegance

I am going beyond E-city for the 1st time on this highway. Any suggestions or preacautions that I need to take?

Start early (Hosur-Krishnagiri has some rough patches as well as widening work). It's 4 lane all the way to Salem (NH7) and beyond on NH47. At Salem you will have to take the ramp on left side to latch on to NH47 towards Perundurai. At Perundurai you can stop at Hotel Annalakshmi for breakfast/coffee and then take the road next to the hotel to get into Perundurai town towards Kangeyam. You can also stop at Hotel Saravana Bhavan near Sankari on the highway for breakfast (this is after you turn onto NH47 at Salem).
NOTE: There was a post by @Fauji recently regarding one particular place on the highway when nearing Salem where there is an unexpected depression in road surface at the milestone where it says 35Km to Salem.
link

[kala]

Originally Posted by fast_elegance

Planning to do a Munnar trip this Thursday. The route we are planning is

Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Thoppur (Exit NH7 and turn Right) – Mettur – Bhavani (Join NH47) – (Exit NH47) Perundurai – Chennimalai – Kangayam – Dharapuram – Udumalaipettai – Marayoor – Munnar

As several others mentioned, avoid the detour through Mettur, it's not really worth it.

Bottlenecks on this route :

1) Passing Udumalpettai might take 10 to 15 minutes since there are a few deviations at the place where the railway overbridge is under construction, and direction boards are quite sparse, so one may need to stop and ask for directions. (At least I had to do that at a couple of places)

2) The road inside the Chinnar Wildlife sanctuary is in pretty bad shape. Didn't come across any pothole where my car bottomed out, but there were several that were nearly as bad, so you need to take those stretches pretty slowly. Allocate at least 2.5 to 3 hours to cover the 84 kms from Udumalpettai to Munnar.


I travelled to Kottayam via Munnar last week, but instead of taking NH7/47 I went through my favourite route - NH209. Managed to reach Udumalpettai in about 6 hours (incl. a 20 minute breakfast at Chamarajnagar) and Munnar in about 9 hours (incl. a 25 minutes lunch stop at Marayoor). So the actual drive time was about 8 hours 15 minutes (from the NICE Road - NH209 junction).

[fast_elegance]

Thank you so much NPV and Kala!!

Originally Posted by kala

I travelled to Kottayam via Munnar last week, but instead of taking NH7/47 I went through my favourite route - NH209. Managed to reach Udumalpettai in about 6 hours (incl. a 20 minute breakfast at Chamarajnagar) and Munnar in about 9 hours (incl. a 25 minutes lunch stop at Marayoor). So the actual drive time was about 8 hours 15 minutes (from the NICE Road - NH209 junction).

Could you please list this route in detail? I might want to take this while returning.

Originally Posted by NPV

Start early (Hosur-Krishnagiri has some rough patches as well as widening work). It's 4 lane all the way to Salem (NH7) and beyond on NH47. At Salem you will have to take the ramp on left side to latch on to NH47 towards Perundurai. At Perundurai you can stop at Hotel Annalakshmi for breakfast/coffee and then take the road next to the hotel to get into Perundurai town towards Kangeyam. You can also stop at Hotel Saravana Bhavan near Sankari on the highway for breakfast (this is after you turn onto NH47 at Salem).

Was looking for the hotels for breakfast in this route and there it is. Thank you!!