[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

What time does the Bandipur check post closes? 6pm or 9pm?

Both the Ooty and Bathery forest routes close at 9pm. The routes through Nagarhole closes at 6pm.

[mpksuhas]

Bangalore - Calicut - Bangalore update

19 April - Bangalore - Calicut:

Since it was Good Friday day, plan was to start early (03:00 AM) to avoid procession at Wayanad ghats. However, got bit delayed and was 03:45 AM when I started from BTM after picking my cousin.

Took Kanakpura road, ongoing metro work has made the road terrible till NICE road intersection. From then it was fine till Kanakapura barring few deviations due to ongoing road work.

Also, at the end of bridge just before Kanakapura they have put a new speed breaker. I didn't spot this on time and hit it somewhat bad.

Past that too there is road work ongoing at multiple places, however thanks to less traffic there was no issue.

Around 06:45 AM reached Gundlupet, road inside Bandipur forest is relaid and marked well. However, looks like the speed breakers were put separately, I doubt with rains it will start coming apart and cause potholes.

Wayanad roads were comparatively empty thanks to holiday, also we were able to overtake trucks which had crossed check post after 06:00 AM opening of the roads before reaching Batthery.

Since it was just me and my cousin, we dropped the plan of usual few mins bio breaks and decided to drive non stop. At Lakkidi started tail gating a Bangalore - Calicut KSRTC super express. In typical KSRTC style it was pushing off other vehicles away, hence never attempted overtaking it. This way, made good progress till Thamarassery where it stopped at bus stand.

Ghat road has widening work ongoing around 5th hairpin bend. Hope they finish it off before rains start.

Past Thamaraserry was stopped once by police for election related checking and was let off after a customary glance of luggage and noting down vehicle and my details.

Reached Calicut by 09:20 AM. This was the quickest trip for me ever, however never did above ~ 120 KMPH in the entire route. So it has to do with lack of stoppages and traffic.



23 April - Calicut - Bangalore:

Started from Calicut at 02:45 PM and reached Batthery by 05:15 PM. Traffic was less throughout, however being election day there was crowd at all of the multiple polling booths enroute. Stopped at Mint flower / Mathais bakery for a tea break. Since it started raining heavily, waited there for rains to stop and started around 06:20 PM.

Reached Mysore ring road junction at 08:10 PM and took the same route of onward journey (Mysore - Bannur- Mallavalli - Kanakapura). Though traffic was not heavy, it was difficult to drive through the work in progress sections now compared to the early morning drive.

In between that, got a puncture past Kanakapura. Stopped at Brigade complex which houses the CCD to check the puncture. Decided not to change the tyre and instead use portable air inflator and proceed. This took up some 20 mins.

Reached Hosur road - NICE road exit at 11:05 PM.


Overall, would suggest not to take Kanakapura road for a while unless you are driving in non peak - day time. Hope road work gets over before Mysore road widening work starts in full swing.

[BigWheels]

Planning to drive to Kozhikode this 1st May. Does anyone know if there are any potential blocks on the Thamaraserry ghat route. Travelling alone withe a kid.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by BigWheels

Planning to drive to Kozhikode this 1st May. Does anyone know if there are any potential blocks on the Thamaraserry ghat route. Travelling alone withe a kid.

Should be, Suhas's post above is the latest update. Should be smooth. Of course there is always a chance of minor blocks since traffic is always high on the ghats. Two slow moving lorries coming face to face with each other on a hairpin is enough to cause a small pile up.

[BigWheels]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Should be, Suhas's post above is the latest update. Should be smooth. Of course there is always a chance of minor blocks since traffic is always high on the ghats. Two slow moving lorries coming face to face with each other on a hairpin is enough to cause a small pile up.

Thanks Rajeev. The reason im concerned is due to the cyclone in the next 2 days. I believe there was a tree falling leading to a block yesterday due to the rains.

[binand]

Originally Posted by BigWheels

The reason im concerned is due to the cyclone in the next 2 days.

Latest reports indicate that the cyclone will not hit land anywhere in India; it is proceeding towards Bangladesh. But there will be sympathetic heavy rains which shouldn't amount to much.

[Vysakh]

Road widening work across multiple patches between Ramanagara and Mandya have knocked off the hump/speedbreaker signboards at a few places.

[sachinpk]

Gents - need your immediate help. I need to drive down to Perambra, Kozhikode Rural Dt. I had just made a drive to that area 24 hours back, so not very keen on taking the same old boring route (Kanakapura-Malavalli, or the Msyore-HD Kotte-Bavali route). I have the luxury of free time this time around.

Planning to take the Bangalore-Hunsur-Gonikoppal route. From there I see two options.
1. Gonikoppal-Kutta-Tholpetti-Kaattikulam (from then own it is familiar territory for me)
2. Gonikoppal-Virajpet-Iritty-Mattanoor-Koothuparamba-Kuttiyadi (new route to me).

Which would be better? It is going to be a solo drive, and I plan to leave from home by 0300Hrs tomorrow. Would have to be on the Mysore highway till Seringapatna anyways .

[knightrider_7]

Option 1 would be better. There were some road works happening between Mattannur and Koothuparamba when I travelled in this route last month. The road is relatively traffic free (compared to usual NH route from Calicut to Iritty in my case) except for town areas though.

[sachinpk]

Did a Bangalore-Kozhikode-Bangalore trip over the week end. As I had to meet a friend @ Kalpetta I decided to stick to the Bangalore-Mysore-Nanjangud-Gundlupet-Muthanga route to enter Kerala. Avoided the Kanakapura-Malavalli route (on the towards Kozhikode journey; because of the road works etc.).

From Muthanga all the way to Kalpetta, via Sulthan Bathery the roads are in excellent condition. After meeting my friend decided to take the Kalpetta-Kainatti-Panamaram route to proceed towards Perambra, Kozhikode Rural Dt. That road too was well laid out and could maintain a steady speed. The problem of two lane road and lots of vehicles on the road was there; that cannot be avoided.

The biggest surprise for me was that the roads from 4th Mile, all the way to Niravil Puzha has been redone. Some repair work at Vellamunda one street town is still going on. But there is tremendous improvement here. This would be my 11th year driving on this route, and I am seeing this road in such good condition for the first time. The roads after Niravilpuzha all the way through Kuttiyadi Ghats and Thottilpalam are also in excellent shape.

Return journey was done today and because of the good road conditions, did not take the alternate route from Niravilpuzha (byepassing Vellamunda, Tharuvana etc.) to reach Mananthavady. The road from Mananthavady till the state border at Bavali was also in good condition and driving was quite an easy task.

[Rajeevraj]

Drove Bangalore -Tirur-Calicut-Bangalore last week. To Tirur my default route is now via Salem Palakkad. Return was from Calicut and the usual route. Couple of the hair pins are being tarred now and as part of that was reduced to single lane. Due to this got stuck for 5-10 min at these hair pins. My brother in law who returned to Calicut from Wayanad on Sunday got stuck for an hour in total at 2-3 places due to the road works. Uneventful post that with the usual road conditions. Noted that a stretch after Bathery had been widened and tarred and the forest stretch on the Kerala side has also been relaid.

Since I had a stop over in Wayanad, started from there Sunday by 10am which meant I hit Mysore Road by 2.30PM after the lunch break. Was worried about getting stuck as I normally don't hit Mysore Road after 12-1PM on a Weekend. Fortunately, although traffic was very high, apart from a 10-15 min crawl in Channapatna, did not get stuck anywhere.

[mpksuhas]

Did Bangalore - Calicut - Bangalore last week.

Had a marriage to attend to on Friday - 24th May, earlier plan was to take train both ways, however tickets didn't get confirmed even though booking was done 2.5 months in advance. Hence decided to drive down.

Onward- 24th May - Friday

Started at 03.15 AM from HSR layout, took NICE road to Mysore road. Decided against Kanakapura road since it was still early and didn't want to drive during road work in dark like last time.

Mysore road was empty and made good progress, there are couple of new speed breakers which has come up. One was near the Kanava reservoir turn off and another one around the KFC outlet. Went though Mysore town since it was early, instead of taking longer ring road.

Reached Gundlupet forest checkpost around 06:10 AM, thanks to this was able to overtake most of the truck traffic while inside forest section when there is no traffic from opposite direction. It was halfway to KL border that vehicles started coming from other side.


Crossed Kalpetta through town since it was still early and was able to reach Calicut by 09:05 AM.

Did Not stop anywhere enroute, also noticed that ghat road works are completed. Only road markings are pending, good thing that they completed it before rains.

Roads between Muthanga and Sultan Batherry has some rough patches here and there, nothing bad. However, again once rains starts next week it may become bad quick.



Return - 26th May - Sunday

Started from home at 07.40 AM, thanks to Sunday morning reached Batherry quickly, stopped at Mintflower / Mathais bakery for bio break. The place was just opening, they had still kept main shutters down. However, few customers was already inside the bakery through back door which opens towards Mintflower reception.

Reached Mysore ring road around 11.00 AM, took ring road - Bannur - Mallavalli - Kanakapura road.

Traffic from Mallavalli was bit on higher side and it took more than usual time to reach.

Road work is a hassle, though no bad sections as such it eats up time.


Reached Hosur road exit of NICE road at around 02:30 PM.


One thing I forgot to update in earlier, while coming from Kanakapura, for taking NICE road towards Hosur road you now need to go towards Banashankari for around 1 KM and then take U turn and come thanks to metro construction.

For going towards Magadi road side, there is no hassle.

[Vysakh]

Any updates on the road conditions since the rains began?

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by Vysakh

Any updates on the road conditions since the rains began?

I had done Bangalore - Calicut - Bangalore during first week of October. Roads are fine overall, however it was patchy between Muthanga - Batherry & around Lakkidi. But else as such its fine, nothing to be concerned about as such.

[ajithbr]

Back to driving out of Bangalore after about 3 years... did my most popular/frequent route of Bangalore-Kozhikode twice in the last 2 weeks, once via usual Mysore Road and once via Kanakapura Road.

Now the question is how is route via Gudalur-Nilambur as well as Hunsur-Kutta? Also how is Bangalore to Iritty (for Kannur/Payyannur side) roads now? Not a fan of Mysore-Mananthavady route but how is it the current situation of that road now compared to Hunsur-Kutta route, and is there night time travel restrictions in this route?