[gopikb]

Originally Posted by narayans80

manim, is the 4-laning of Madurai-Tuticorin complete ?

narayans80, yes. It is very much complete now and absolutely wonderful to drive. I drove the stretch from Madurai to Tuticorin 2 weeks ago. All major towns / villages are bypassed and it took just about 2 hours to cover this distance driving at 90km/hr speed in a Tata Sumo.

With a good car where you can do consistent 110km/ hour speed, you should be able to cover it in 90 minutes max. Traffic was very sparse in the Sunday afternoon when I drove.

[ampere]

Narayan 45B is fully complete till Tuticorin.
And like Trichy-Madurai, its a beauty to drive.

But only thing I gather is that there are not many break points on this road.

@Gopi may have some info on that. I think he is a regular on that sector.

EDIT:

Just saw Gopi's response, after I typed!

[gopikb]

Thank ampere for pitching in. I see you have pretty much become a mini "HVK" as far as southern road routes are concerned. Do you travel very frequently as well throughout south India?

[narayans80]

Thanks gentlemen lack of food/fuel facilities shouldn't be a problem for a < 2 hr drive (Madurai-Tuticorin is just 136 km IIRC), for Madras boys there's a BP just before Madurai bypass.

[manim]

Originally Posted by narayans80

manim, is the 4-laning of Madurai-Tuticorin complete ?

You already have the answers from many others!

Yes it is great to drive now.
I did that stretch just 5 days back.
You have to now pay toll at both ends (47x2=94 Rs).

[tharian]

Is there a ECR from Tuticorin to Chennai and if yes, how good is the road?
I am biking from Bangalore to Tuticorin and then onward to Chennai and was looking at the coastal road .
From past few posts, I see there is a full 4lane road connecting Tuticorin to Chennai.

Regards

[ampere]

Originally Posted by tharian

Is there a ECR from Tuticorin to Chennai and if yes, how good is the road?
I am biking from Bangalore to Tuticorin and then onward to Chennai and was looking at the coastal road .
From past few posts, I see there is a full 4lane road connecting Tuticorin to Chennai.

Regards

The ECR is amazing for biking. Just that its low on facilities.

Just what you need! Check with Naveen.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-3-states.html

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by ampere

The ECR is amazing for biking. Just that its low on facilities.

Amp, do you have any update on the road condition of the ECR from Chennai to Rameswaram? I like to do this road to reach Rameswaram instead of taking the usual NH45.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by rameshnanda

Amp, do you have any update on the road condition of the ECR from Chennai to Rameswaram? I like to do this road to reach Rameswaram instead of taking the usual NH45.

I dont have any recent update per se Ramesh. But I think by and large the road is perfect. It gets a bit rough around Kanyakumari alone. Apart from that its a beauty. But almost negligible facilities. For a bachelor's highway cruising its perfect. But for family folks it gets a bit difficult.

I am sure your Linea would love to munch the miles on that stretch.

What I would suggest is :

Ulundurpet-Vridhachalam-Chidambaram-Sirkazhi-and ECR there on.

Some how I am not very impressed by traffic in and around Pondicherry/Cuddalore on the ECR.

[batman]

Look at the condition of 4 lane Tolled road between Madurai and Tuticorin; Perfect recipe for accidents! Especially for 2 wheelers.

These are the pictures doing rounds in FB. The pictures are said to be taken between Arupukkottai and Pandalgudi. From the pictures we can see that stretch of the road has sunk about 6"to 8" where the truck tyres tread, indicating the quality of the roads laid. The same condition said to exist in many of the stretches between Madurai and Tuticorin.

Photos Credit: Facebook

[autoskooll]

I just drove from Bengaluru to Pune, some stretches of the NH4 in Northern Karnataka had the same problem. The car was wavering quite a bit and I had to make constant corrections to the steering to keep it in line.

[cruising_rapid]

The road condition between Varanasi to Allahabad is even worse. During many long stretches, left and right wheels of the car are not on the same plane and steering feels as if the tyres are rolling on many blunt blades joined together. These conditions speak poorly of the quality of material used.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by batman

Look at the condition of 4 lane Tolled road between Madurai and Tuticorin; Perfect recipe for accidents! Especially for 2 wheelers.

These are the pictures doing rounds in FB. The pictures are said to be taken between Arupukkottai and Pandalgudi. From the pictures we can see that stretch of the road has sunk about 6"to 8" where the truck tyres tread, indicating the quality of the roads laid. The same condition said to exist in many of the stretches between Madurai and Tuticorin.

Photos Credit: Facebook

When it was first laid, the tarmac was so smooth, but then it began to deteriorate at a fast rate.
And as expected all the traffic began to move to the fast lane; Trucks, buses, cars, motorcycles, in addition to the local idiots who go in the opposite direction.

So much so, we found ourselves going in the bumpy slow lane to have some meaningful progress. But things get way way better from Madurai northwards, its bliss.

Makes me wonder where the whole Toll thing goes to

[hserus]

Originally Posted by DicKy

So much so, we found ourselves going in the bumpy slow lane to have some meaningful progress. But things get way way better from Madurai northwards, its bliss.

Makes me wonder where the whole Toll thing goes to

You just need to clear the nightmare known as the madurai bypass. Everything other than that is manageable.

Did chennai - tiruchendur via tirunelveli and returned via tuticorin a few months back, and set for a kanyakumari trip soon. Those sunken patches etc keep occuring but there's a reasonable amount of maintenance on this road. Raise these photographs in a grievance to the NHAI and see what they say. http://www.nhai.org/Grievance.asp or better - http://pgportal.gov.in/cpgoffice/

[batman]

Originally Posted by autoskooll

I just drove from Bengaluru to Pune, some stretches of the NH4 in Northern Karnataka had the same problem.

Originally Posted by cruising_rapid

The road condition between Varanasi to Allahabad is even worse. During many long stretches, left and right wheels of the car are not on the same plane and steering feels as if the tyres are rolling on many blunt blades joined together.

Do you think any meaningful patch-up work can be done on these such roads? In my opinion, the only solution can be entirely scraping the top layer evenly and relaying the stretch; else this would recur again.

Originally Posted by hserus

You just need to clear the nightmare known as the madurai bypass.

Yes. I lost one of my car tyres (15 months old & hardly done 8000 Kms) in that stretch eventhough I was going in a minimal speed in that 2 laned road.
No improvement seen until last month when I was travelling by bus in that bypass road.

Originally Posted by DicKy

When it was first laid, the tarmac was so smooth, but then it began to deteriorate at a fast rate.

Yes, true; When I was driving to Tuticorin from Chennai in early 2010, it was about 80% completed and the drive was very smooth with sparse traffic around noon.

During Dec 2015, when I again made the trip, I could see that the road quality has deteriorated.

Also look at the hump, that is seen in NH138 (Formerly NH7A) connecting Tuticorin & Palayamkottai.

This hump suddenly appears out of nowhere and you are likely to see it only in the last second before hitting it. Personally I have experienced this. I read in the online news portal that 2 wheeler riders have lost their life because of this 'hump'. Similarly there is a 'drop' in few Kms when you travel further down. Think, neither the Contractors nor the Highway Dept. apply their mind before they clear the route for traffic.

Source:
http://tutyonline.net/view/52_135598...321184639.html