[narayans80]

Originally Posted by mogambo

stop at Belum Caves

Even with a toddler in tow, we still spent about 1.5 hours at Belum. It will take 2.5 hours from Anantapur and 2.5 hours to Kurnool

[mogambo]

Didn’t go to Belum. Left Bangalore 5.30am - heavy rains but drove through city and crossed airport around 6.45am.
Breakfast at Pranav veg hotel on the right little after 7. Coasted through the drive at 100, stopping for coffee couple of times.
Lunch at Jadcherla at Sandarshini veg. Bit expensive but good food and clean toilets.
Reached Hitech city at 3pm. Would have reached earlier but on joining ORR I missed the Gachibowli turning and took the next one towards Vijayawada. Then drove 5km before I could take a U turn.

Roads are good throughout. Bit of traffic at Kurnool, few diversions here and there.

All in all a good drive.

[srvm]

Any latest update on the road condition between Hyd and Bangalore?
Heard that there is flooding in and around Anantapur due to heavy rains?

[mogambo]

Am driving later today. Will update post travel

[mogambo]

Left HYD around 2.15pm. Smooth drive - reached BLR airport around 10pm.
Google said impact floods in Anantapur but I suspect that may be inside the town.
No impact on the highway anywhere.

[sudipta]

Plan to drive from Hyderabad to Bangalore on 31 Oct and return on 3 Nov. Starting early morning to avoid as much traffic as possible. I have marked all the COCO pumps in the route to make them my usual pit stops. Fastag card recharged for toll, but it has gone up quite drastically I am told. I will update post my drive.

[skrishdrives]

Scheduled to travel early morning tomorrow from Bangalore to HYD, hopefully the rain gods and road conditions will be benevolent enough to allow a smooth driving experience

As Mogambo mentioned above, have read that Anantapur area has floods, however, am assuming its more internal than on the highway.

A bit more concerned about the bangalore road situation as I have to drive from across the border at Anekal through the city of bangalore and cross the airport where I have heard the road conditions are pretty terrible. Anybody has any idea on the same?

@Mogambo, how were the roads to and past the airport if in case you drove beyond it?

[srvm]

Did my first drive from Bangalore to Hyderabad and back as part of my Bangalore - Bhadrachalam trip.
I have a few queries to regulars who travel this route.

1. I started at 11.30am from C V Raman Nagar on 31st Oct. Got stuck at a traffic jam near Divitpalli for about 20 minutes. Reached Jadcherla for night halt at 9pm.
While returning, I started from Tellapur at 8am. Reached C V Raman Nagar at 7pm. In addition to food / bio breaks, I visited Beechupali Hanuman Temple on banks of Krishna river which took additional 1 hour.

Is this too slow a travel? What is the usual travel time for regulars and what speeds due you usually cruise at?


2. Whats with the ridiculous speed limits on the NH44? Most places in AP/Telangana where there is small town crossing, the speed limits are 60 & 40 kmph near the rumblers. I usually cruise between 90-100 kmph. While I did slow down considerably at these crossings, I could never come down to 40kmph. But all the while, I saw others zooming (>80 kmph) without slowing down. Is this normal for this NH?
The speed limits around Chickballapur are also 40/50 kmph with no compelling reason. How do you folks deal with this?

3. How on earth do you folks deal with the unmarked speed humps in and around Anantapur? Some are also there near Lepakshi & Chickballapur. Particularly, when you drive at night.

4. At my cruising speed, I seem to overtake only trucks and maybe 1 in 25 cars. Even 2 wheelers and autos (I was surprised to see so many autos on this highway!) were doing 70-80kmph regularly. What then, is the best time to cross Jadcherla - Shadnagar - Nehru ORR junction?

[Revvatron]

Originally Posted by srvm

At my cruising speed, I seem to overtake only trucks and maybe 1 in 25 cars. Even 2 wheelers and autos (I was surprised to see so many autos on this highway!) were doing 70-80kmph regularly. What then, is the best time to cross Jadcherla - Shadnagar - Nehru ORR junction?

Since you took breaks visiting other places the time seems normal. If you are doing 80 then it will be difficult to manage especially between Kurnool and hyderabad stretch.

Coming to best time, for me it is weekdays like Tuesday to Thursday before 11 am. But you will encounter some sort of traffic no matter the time. I even tried night drives, not plain sailing but better than daytime traffic.

[gops619]

For my multiple trips, Devanahalli(Nandi Upachar) to Hyderabad ORR (Shamshabad) consumed ~7.5 hours on average including a fuel and food stop.

Status Update:
Early October, the Divitpally RuB has progressed but still has portion directly over the rail line to be done. I came across the RuB works first in December 2022, it is still ongoing, so no guesses by when it will complete.

The flyover works near Shamshabad ORR seemed near complete and should be opening soon(if hasn't since).

[mayukh42]

Originally Posted by smsrini

There seems to be a new food court - Big Bay around ChikkaBallapur.

Been to this food court yerterday on an evening trip to Lepakshi. It is one of its kind, looks like a mini USA mall from inside, with a AC atrium and airport grade washrooms.



However, i felt it is still short of veg breakfast options (only Haldirams but not too big), until a brand like A2B or Paakashala sets up shop. Hopefully, since there are plenty of empty stalls we might see those options later.

Though, it's claims to be largest highway food mall of India is far from truth. There are many food courts much larger than this one, e.g. the ones on Agra-Lucknow Expressway or Mumbai-Pune expressway. Or if by highway they mean other than expressways, still the Food Pyramid near Rajamahendravaram (NH16), or in Kothakota on same NH44, will run circles around this one.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by srvm

Did my first drive from Bangalore to Hyderabad and back as part of my Bangalore - Bhadrachalam trip.
I have a few queries to regulars who travel this route.

1. I started at 11.30am from C V Raman Nagar on 31st Oct. Got stuck at a traffic jam near Divitpalli for about 20 minutes. Reached Jadcherla for night halt at 9pm.
While returning, I started from Tellapur at 8am. Reached C V Raman Nagar at 7pm. In addition to food / bio breaks, I visited Beechupali Hanuman Temple on banks of Krishna river which took additional 1 hour.

Is this too slow a travel? What is the usual travel time for regulars and what speeds due you usually cruise at?

In recent times, the quickest has been 8-8.5 hrs (for an early 4:30AM start) and slowest probably was 10.5-11 hrs., point to point from Bellandur <-> Tellapur. This includes one or two meal/tea breaks as neccesary. And speeds were consistent 100-110 throughout with very little variations.

Early morning starts make a difference, in either directions as one doesn't get 'local' traffic for a third of the distance. I end up saving 1 hr+ mostly. That said the overall time depends on a bit of luck as I keep seeing traffic jams often plaguing this route.

Sometime in Nov 2020, I once started from Bellandur around 4:30AM and reached Hyd ORR by 11AM. Did much higher speeds because it was possible back in those days (sparse traffic and excellent road shape). Traffic has only increased manifold in the recent years while the road is no longer flawless smooth.

2. Whats with the ridiculous speed limits on the NH44? Most places in AP/Telangana where there is small town crossing, the speed limits are 60 & 40 kmph near the rumblers. I usually cruise between 90-100 kmph. While I did slow down considerably at these crossings, I could never come down to 40kmph. But all the while, I saw others zooming (>80 kmph) without slowing down. Is this normal for this NH?
The speed limits around Chickballapur are also 40/50 kmph with no compelling reason. How do you folks deal with this?

I am little careful once I am in the TS area and slow to 80 kmph if I see a board for it. Rest I drive as is and slow down at crossings as per my driving habit.

Got (only)one speeding ticket in April last year but brother was driving much faster than the 80 limit. I see the spot has been tagged on the Gmap already and one can be careful around.

3. How on earth do you folks deal with the unmarked speed humps in and around Anantapur? Some are also there near Lepakshi & Chickballapur. Particularly, when you drive at night.

Muscle memory helps at times.

or observing that fast vehicle in front who braked or jumped those speed breakers.

or I jump them myself -> cringe -> sigh -> move on

One risk I see is me slowing down for a speed breaker and the tail gater behind me doesn't. So I keep a close eye on the RVM and slow down much in advance if I know/remember of a breaker coming up ahead.

4. At my cruising speed, I seem to overtake only trucks and maybe 1 in 25 cars. Even 2 wheelers and autos (I was surprised to see so many autos on this highway!) were doing 70-80kmph regularly. What then, is the best time to cross Jadcherla - Shadnagar - Nehru ORR junction?

This section has been a 'rat race' since the last 9 yrs that I have driven on this route. Bangalore outskirts from Bagepalli onwards is similar and only slightly better. Early start(4-5 AM) or late entry (post 10-11PM) or crossing during afternoon (1PM-3PM) helps while going in either directions. But it is best to apportion 2 hours for this section, make peace and observe the rat race go by from a distance.

[gadadhar]

My friend and their family are planning to drive from Hyderabad to Chikmagalur. They are traveling with a small child and prefer not to drive more than 6 to 7 hours in one stretch. Google Maps suggests deviating from the HYD-BLR highway at Kurnool and taking the Bellary route to Chikmagalur.

Is this the best option considering the current road conditions, or would it be better to stay somewhere near Chikballapur and then take the Chikmagalur road next day morning?

If the Bellary road is good, is Bellary the right place to break the journey? It will help to know the stay options enroute

[tharian]

Can someone who had traveled recently mention the toll charges in total for both ways?

I have couple of trips coming up end of the month and in Dec which I am planning to drive solo. One is to the US Consulate and one to the US VAC. When looking at the map, both show the route is via ring road, approaching from the Blore highway. But, it shows going on the service road and then after some distance, moving to the opposite side service road to approach the VAC. Is that right or is there another route that is less complex. Thanks.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by tharian

Can someone who had traveled recently mention the toll charges in total for both ways?

About 915 or 925 each way, excluding the toll on Nehru ORR as that depends on the exit you take.

I have couple of trips coming up end of the month and in Dec which I am planning to drive solo. One is to the US Consulate and one to the US VAC. When looking at the map, both show the route is via ring road, approaching from the Blore highway. But, it shows going on the service road and then after some distance, moving to the opposite side service road to approach the VAC. Is that right or is there another route that is less complex. Thanks.

Isn't the VAC at Madhapur? To go there, you should take the Gachibowli exit, proceed via Kondapur junction or take right and go via Biodiversity-Hitech city.

For the new US Consulate, take Financial District exit, take right immediately to cross over to the other side of the ORR. Then you could proceed along the service road on the other side before taking a right (and straight) or take the ISB road directly and then take left to reach the Consulate. I prefer the latter.