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-   -   Bangalore - Calicut : Route Queries (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/52014-bangalore-calicut-route-queries-76.html)

Agree with Binand here. It's a peak hours start, with Dusserha holidays in full swing, expect heave traffic all the way to Mysore and crossing Mysore. Beyond that you have the problems Binand mentioned. Does not seem a great idea.

I would actually recommend doing a very early start on 11th. Maybe by 3am and take the regular route. Or do the Palakkad route.

Did you mean a free right? Because taking a left at Srirangapatna would be setting the direction towards Nanjangud side (and not Yelawala side). If I enter the Mysore Ring Road via Bannur Road, I would still need to drive towards Yelawala crossing Columbia Asia signal?

NOTE: The Salem-Palakkad suggestion is still kept open. Need to check with the other two convoy drivers :) .

No no... I meant free left, at Columbia Asia junction.

If you want to take Srirangapatna-Yelawala road - you will have to exit the EW after the second toll to the left onto the service road (it is signposted and comes within 5 km after the second toll booth), go underneath the EW to enter the town, cross both the bridges over the Kavery and take a right turn at the roundabout.

But once again - I wouldn't recommend any of this in the dead of the night, if you are unfamiliar with the road networks and junctions.

I was suggesting turning left at Columbia Asia junction and entering into Mysore city proper via Bannur road. Basically - instead of going around Mysore city via the MRR go through the city diametrically.

Thank you. What is the average time you take when you proceed via the Bangalore-Salem-Palakkad-Kozhikode route? My own experience, I am noting it down below.

After considering the reasoning got from esteemed Team-BHP members, I decided to proceed to Calicut via Salem-Palakkad route. Since religious ceremonies (and its timings) were involved, I could not afford to start during early morning hours, the next day. My destination was Perambra - which is not any where near Calicut city.

Due to other commitments I could only start the drive at 5:15PM from E-City area. Crossed Chandapura at 5:30PM. The first traffic block was at Hosur town. Under construction bridges and the higher traffic due to the long week end and Dusserah holidays. Lots of shopping crowd as well. So it was only by 7:30PM that I could cross the Krishnagiri toll (with an early morning start of 4AM from home, I usually cross Krishnagiri toll by around 5:00AM to 5:15AM). I was expecting heavy traffic towards Kerala, but found it quite normal. It was only at 8:30PM that I reached the Saravana Bhavan hotel at Vaikuntam beyond Salem. Had a very light dinner from there.

From then on there was a steady rain fall till the suburbs of Coimbatore. The road traffic was thin - only KL bound cars & trucks - but the rains ensured no speeding. What really irritated me was the road barriers placed by various TN Govt agencies. There was one RTO check post beyond the L&T byepass, and then there were barriers placed right before KL border by the PEW of TN Police. Slow moving trucks trying to navigate these points, added to the delays.

It was at 12 midnight that we reached Palakkad. Decided to proceed further via Mannarkkad-Manjeri-Areacode-Mukkam-Balussery route. Since I did not want Google Maps to suddely make changes in the route, I only fed in the next immediate destination. Palakkad to Mannarkkad route was excellent. Truck & KSRTC bus movements were high, but was not a problem at all. There were fuel pumps and road side eateries open all along. My plan was to go to Melattur, but again Google Maps took me to Perinthalmanna and on a very poor road from Perinthalmanna to Melattur. I should have gone for the Perinthalmanna-Manjeri direct route.

From Manjeri the roads were excellent all the way. Areacode-->Mukkam-->Balussery-->Perambra; I could maintain a steady speed of 80KMPH. By then the time was around 2:45AM, and the urge for me to reach the destination was also high. What I observed in this route was that many hotels & fuel pumps remained open, and I could also see many youngsters on the road in their cars. Exactly at 3:50AM we pulled into our destination at Perambra. 564kms in 10.5 Hrs (approx)!!

I made my return trip via Kerala SRTC bus. This bus proceeded via the Kozhikode-Sulthan Bathery-Mananthavady-Kutta-Gonikoppal route. I remember the bus stopping for refueling at a way side fuel pump (in KA). Then it went forward, and I saw a place which looked like a bus stand. Then it took a very sharp U turn (almost like turning back), and then proceeded further. It would have been roughly 2AM, and the road was deserted. At least near the fuel pump the roads were also in bad condition.

Another advice I got from my folks in KL was to try and use the Virajpet-Iritty-Nadapuram route to come towards Perambra. Need expert advice here as well. Is this an viable alternate route to proceed towards Kozhikode at night?

Many regulars on the Bangalore-Palakkad circuit nowadays take the (partially redeveloped) NH 844 to avoid some of these issues. It is a steady 70-75 mins to reach Dharmapuri from Hosur.


I always prefer: Palakkad (Olavakkode) > Mundur junction, take left > Kongad > Perinthalmanna > Tirurkkad > Anakkayam > Manjeri (go through the town instead of the bypass) > Kavanur. Since I go into Calicut city proper I take a left turn here, but for Perambra you should go straight ahead to Arekode > Thamarassery > Ullyeri and turn right to Perambra. The entire route is excellent (except the first Mundur-Perinthalmanna section which is being 4-laned, has no lane markings yet and has on-and-off road divider which could be confusing in the night).

This could be Gonikoppal - the local bus stand is towards Virajpet. But you can't have the bus going both through Sulthan Bathery and Mananthavady.

This route shares the Bangalore-Mysore-Hunsur-Gonikoppal section with the Tholpetty entry to Kerala. Every risk / concern for the latter applies to the former as well. You take it by not turning left at Gonikoppal but instead going straight towards Virajpet, a left turn a few km before Virajpet and then a long and lonely drive through the Makutta churam to reach Iritty. From Iritty till Koothuparamba it is Thalassery-Mysore SH and in excellent condition; but after you turn towards Panoor and enter Calicut district road conditions are quite bad.

My bad! It was Thamarassery (the bus stopped at the road side) and then Mananthavady.

I have added both these routes (Kutta-Kattikulam & Makkutta-Iritty) in my TODO list. Planning for day time travel for "road learning".

Good timing considering the date and time of the trip and and the longer route.

I also returned from Calicut Monday morning with a 5.15am start. Regular route. Seeing all the updates on churam blocks was worried about it. Fortunately very light traffic on churam. Entered NICE road in just about 6 hours. The expressway was very light on traffic and because of the worry about the cameras and its errors, stuck to 90kmph throughout which almost snooze inducing.

Late update. I was of impression that I already updated the thread.

24 Jan 2025

Started from home near HSR layout at 3.35 AM, took NICE road and then joined Mysore road. The 100kmph speed limit seems very difficult at this time, I hope they increase it to 120kmph, but at the same instance, noticed some 3 or 4 smaller commercial vehicles (Bolero/ Tata ACE etc) which were swaying across lane. Looked like the drivers were sleeping off.

Reached Bandipur forest check post around 6.20 AM or so. Batherry at 7.20 AM, took a bio break at yet to open Mathai bakery / Mint flower for around 5 mins.

Started onwards, luckily no jams at ghats and also thankfully none at Thamaraserry junction too, surprising considering it was office timings.

Reached Calicut at 9.40 AM, even suprising was that the Malaparamb junction underpass work induced diversion / circling around the junction has made the junction smooth as of now.




26 Jan 2025

Started from home at 2.16 PM, being Sunday as expected traffic was sparse till Ghats. Thankfully, the weekend tourist traffic was just building up and we crossed the ghats relatively quickly.

Took Kalpetta byepass just to see how the road condition is now, re surfacing work was in progress, so hope by now its all done.

Reached Batherry Mathai bakery, our usual pit stop by 4.57 PM, at 2 hour 40 mins, the timing is almost same as it would have been on a weekday (today being a Sunday). The advantage of less traffic of weekend till Ghats being negated by the comparatively higher weekend traffic in Wayanad.

After a 10 mins stop, started from Mathai at 5.08 PM, reached Mysore ring road IOC at 7.06 PM. Though I could have continued to Bangalore with the available fuel, I didn't want to take a chance since it may be a hit or miss situation if there was traffic on NICE road. I had missed to tank up before the trip start from Bangalore, hence the situation.

So tanked up there and started at 7.20 PM, reached home at 9.48 PM.

Overall, past the Mysore road getting done, its possible to reach Calicut in 6 hours consistently with an early morning start and the return drives are usually in ~ 7.5 hours consistently with an afternoon start from Calicut.




Malaparamb underpass work in progress. This has as of now got over, with the overpass section / Wayanad road path being planned for opening in a day or two.

The NH66 - section, the dirt track seen in this pic is still work in progress, with news doing rounds that it may be open by end of March.





Another interesting observation was, all across the forest section came across these multi axle tipper trucks carrying stone / sand from KA side towards KL. Seems like a workaround for construction industry due to the mining restrictions in KL post the landslides.

The count of trucks were really high, I would have counted atlesat 50 trucks in the morning while going towards Calicut. On the return too, noticed many trucks, the pic below was taken on way back.

Which is this app sir that you use for tracking the journey timings?

The above screenshot is from my Google maps timeline.

This the location tracking feature on google maps.