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Hi,

I am excited to go for a long drive to alleppey for my friend's marriage.

I prefer to drive in the night, mostly starting around 9 or 10 pm, but not sure whether starting at night is good for such long drives. My plan is to drive all night and allow my friend to continue in the morning.

Can you guys help me with the route, road condition and to plan the time intervals to avoid traffic or peak hours in the cities on the way? if required, i prefer to halt anywhere in between since we have enough time to reach the destination.

It takes only 12-14 hours of sane drive from Chennai to Allapuzha & IMHO, avoid the night drive. Start early in the morning, say 3 or 4 AM & you can be there before 5PM on a very sane driving & good breaks.

The route you can choose is Chennai-Krishnagiri-Salem-Coimbatore-Palakkad-Thrissur-Chalakkudi-Ernakulam-Allapuzha

Alternatively you can follow Chennai-Krishnagiri-Salem-Tiruppur-Pollachi-Chalakkudi-Ernakulam-Allapuzha

The first route I'm quite familiar & the roads until Coimbatore are breeze of 4 laned NH & you don't have to worry about the oncoming traffic; Coimbatore-Palakkad-Thrissur is ghat section & you may strongly avoid the night drive in this section.

Avoid the night drive if possible & if you cannot, try to drive to Salem, stay there at night & then take a early morning start towards Allapuzha.

Pollachi to Chalakkudi alone would take you about 5 hours in this route so not advisable in case your objective is to reach Alleppey from Chennai in reasonable time and with less stress. In case you want to drive in the night then this route is not advisable at all, narrow roads, elephant movements, no mobile signals for about 50 kms with little or no traffic opt for this only if you are insane.

In case you wish to take an alternate report what you could possibly do is go via Chennai - Trichy - Dindigul - Theni - Kumily - Kanjirapally - Changanasery - Alleppey. You will have to live with some high ranges driving between Kumily and Kanjirapalli.

The NH7-NH47 combo - first route suggested by aargee - is the best for a night drive. You can reach Salem in super-quick time (< 3 hours) and from there NH47 will be empty of miscellaneous traffic and people. TN-KL checkpost may have traffic jams, but rest of the route is fine.

In case you are looking for detailed route info, you can check out the following link:
SOUTH INDIA, Nov 2009 - hvkumar | Google Groups

Thanks guys,

since i am close to tambaram, i was thinking about taking NH45 and reach Dindigul for halt.

@pypkmsrikanth, is the road completed between trichy to dindigul?

@aargee, hvkumar, which route would be more scenic? this is a very leisure drive so i dont mind driving a longer route. Marriage is monday morning and i am planning to start on friday night or saturday morning. so there is going to be lot of breaks and cover some sightseeing.

Srikanth's suggestion for the Theni route is the most scenic, but it will be a long day.
Trichy-Dindigul widening work is still going on.
Rest of the roads are good, except for a small ghat section just before Kumili.
From Kumili onwards, the road is downhill ghats through tea estates, rubber plantations and rich greenery.

NH7-NH47 is the best. Go till Salem, take a halt and start early to beat the traffic. Much better and safer option. If you are driving at night, take care of Thoppur ghats. There are many speed breakers. You may/may not spot them in the night.

Last week I travelled between Palani to Chennai.After Oddanchatram I took the Vedasandur- Vadamadurai-Trichy without touching Dindigul.The roads are good.From Vadamadurai-Trichy one portion of the highway is complete only in patches the road is average.Manaparai bypass is also complete.

if i go to salem through NH45, do i have to turn in NH68 at ulundurpet or SH10 a veppur? is NH68 widening work completed?

Ulundurpet & Veppur??? But that's the opposite direction of Allapuzha isn't it? I thought you were heading to Allapuzha from Salem or did I miss something? Or did you mean Udumalaipet?

And Ampere, Thoppur is again like going towards north instead of west isn't it? So from Thoppur which way to head towards Allapuzha?

klassics45 is based in Madras, going via Ulundurpet/Veppur on NH45 is the shortest route to Salem/Dindigul.

If he comes via Krishnagiri, Thoppur is on his way to Allapuzha/Alleppy, it is south of Krishnagiri. The NH7 goes south till Salem/Dindigul and turns west from there onwards.

Thanks Sir, I got the picture of Thoppur now, Ampere made a perfect route.

However, I still don't get the Ulundurpet/Veppur. Here's what Google map showed me. Pls let me know where I've been making the mistake. Thanks.

He has a choice of turning off NH45 at either Ulundurpet or Veppur and proceed to Salem. From Sale, he can take NH47 all the way to Alapuzha.

Alternatively, he goes on the NH4-NH46 route to Krishnagiri, then comes via Toppur to Salem to get onto NH47.

Got you Sir. Thanks.
I guess Krishnagiri-Salem is good for first timers & night drives due to the good highway all way upto TN border.

If ultimately you are planning to go via Salem, you might as well take that extra pain to hit NH4/NH46 from Tambaram. Because its much better an option.