[procrj]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Realistically, I would be more worried about the ROB at Doddaballapura

Parag - this ROB is open now hence one less thing to worry about when taking Doddaballapura route.

[paragsachania]

Two updates from separate drives I had over the last few weeks:

Yelahanka - Doddaballapura - Makalidurga:

• If one wants to avoid paying toll at KIAL, taking the longer route to reach Dodaballapura via Devahanalli, trust me that in its present state, the Yelahanka Doddaballapura road is a very wise choice
  
  
• 4 Lane work between Yelahanka and Doddaballapura can be called 80% complete with hardly one or two diversions. You can normally cruise on the dual carriageway and reach Doddaballapura in no time
  
  
• There is only one undone ROB before you actually hit the major junction (for Devanahalli)
  
  
• As procrj mentioned above, the ROB at the major junction before town is all functional now
  
  
• Ganesh Grand located just before Columbia Asia hospital before Doddaballapura town is a very good option for break - Has a full fledged AC Service Hall on 1st floor with very neatly maintained hotel and good food (We had breakfast) and accepts cards as well
  
  
• Beyond Doddaballapura to Makalidurga also the roads are simply fantastic devoid of any traffic

Kalyandurg (AP) - Pavagada - Madhugiri - Dabaspete - Nelamangala - Bangalore:
Had been to interiors of AP last weekend for a charity event with BHPian funkykar and chose the Hyderabad highway till Anantpur for onward. However, realised that we were still close to Karnataka and wanted to explore the other option via the state highway that connected AP to Pavagada and Madhugiri.

• The entire Kalyandurg to Dabaspete road is a beautiful single carriageway, devoid of much traffic, barring Madhugiri to Dabspet, passing through some very well maintained lakes with sit outs by KSRDL
  
  
• There are road construction/expansion work in progress at very few places, more precisely in parts of AP that you pass
  
  
• Madhugiri bypass (Seemed like it) is almost complete that one may not need to enter the town going forward. They had placed barricades that made us get into the town
  
  
• Further to Dabaspet, I wanted to take the Doddaballapura route as my destination was Yelahanka and that would have made prefect sense but I decided to drop a friend of mine at Peenya Metro and hence ended up taking the Nelamangala route
  
  
• Overall feedback : Most of Karnataka's State highways get a big thumbs up now. Not only they have expanded them but also maintained them with adequate signage, no speed-breakers but rumblers and some amazingly neat lakes with fencing and benches which I am sure was provided as part of the road infrastructure itself

Here are some images from some beautiful sections:

[paragsachania]

On Saturday, I went on a leisure drive towards roads connecting Yelahanka to Nelamagala and returned again via another Internal route only because I wanted to avoid the main roads in every case.

I do know that bhpian friend itwasntme would have taken this route quite a few times to reach Nelamangala before. My earlier route from Yelahanka was via Hesarghatta and mix of various small to very smaller roads that is not something anyone can recommend for a first timer.

However, this one which I drove on the weekend was quite impressive in a way that it connects one from Nelamangala to Doddaballapur Road (Rajankunte, Yelahanka) with zero complaints and can act as a Time+Patience+fuel+Clutch saver if passing Bangalore during peak hours. I recommend this only during the day.

The route taken:

Yelehanka - Doddaballapura Road - Rajankunte - Dibbur - Madhure - Golhalli.

Route condition : Majorly excellent, devoid of any traffic, occasional speed breakers along the curves, and very small bad patches around Nelemangala as you approach the town.

Who does this benefit?

• Those arriving to Bangalore from Mangalore side or Tukmur side
• To avoid the queue at the NBTL toll on a peak evening - Both directions
• To avoid crawl as you approach Goreguntepalya junction after descending from Peenya
• To avoid slow progress on and after the ROB on ORR till you reach Hebbal
• To avoid crawling nearing Hebbal - If driving out of Bangalore towards Hassan/Tumkur
• To avoid taking any internal route to avoid the T-Junction at Goreguntepalya
• To avoid Dabaspet - Doddaballapur road which is still witnessing expansion work
• To avoid Doddaballapur - Devanahalli section which can be a longer detour

When not to take this road:

• After dark, avoid taking this after 7PM. Due to less traffic, whole of this stretch will certainly feel isolated
• Early mornings or regular hours - You wont save much time with this and the route via City will be faster with faster roads as well

If one wants to reach Hyderabad road, the common point is the KIAL toll towards Airport which each one will cross. From Nelamangala, one can directly enter the town from below the flyover, take the road leading towards Doddaballapura and drive on this road till you cross the Anjaneya Temple beside the lake at Chikkamadhure and then turn right for Rajankunte. Heading straight instead of right here will take you to Doddaballapur road.

Now, once you turn right, you keep driving on this beautiful & decently wide single carriageway all the way till you reach a junction where Doddaballapur road crossed you (Rajankunte) where you take left (towards Doddaballapur) and just little ahead in another 100 meters is a right to enter the ROB and after descending this will take you straight to MVIT road touching KIAL expressway on the Service road (Bang opposite to A2B) where you merge onto KIAL expressway.

Since I have regularly taken the Rajankunte - MVIT road whenever I wanted to visit Decathalon or even Airport, I can vouch that this road is in excellent condition. My only concern is a railway gate here after crossing Dravid-Padukone sports center where so far I have been lucky not to have spotted any trains and I never had to stop. However, traffic on this road itself is very thin too. This line is the one that connects Yelahanka to Kolar via Chikkaballapura and Chintamani where the frequency is quite less and the busy Yelahanka Doddaballapura line has an ROB anyway. So overall, the railway line isn't much of a concern.

You can see how both the routes (One via Rajankunte and the other via City) compare right at this hour when the destination is Devanahalli Toll:



Distance wise, more of less both of the routes are almost similar. However, I am sure during peak hours or rush weekends, those wanting to bypass Bangalore, this option will certainly help and its easy to navigate compared to other alternate routes that I had in mind. Quite straightforward at that.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

On Saturday, I went on a leisure drive towards roads connecting Yelahanka to Nelamagala

Thanks to Parag I also tried this route on a Saturday and it was perfect since the drive was from Devanahalli side towards Kunigal. Road conditions are decent all the way. There was a local market and crowd near Madhure temple and a small bridge that was rendered narrow due to vehicles parked on one side. Had to move to extreme left of the bridge here to let an oncoming KSRTC bus move easily. Hardly any traffic all the way on this route, just had to slow down at the junctions where there were people walking around for shopping. Took about an hour and 20 minutes to reach the NH75 junction below the NH48 at Nelamangala.

[deehunk]

NPV, it is the Shani temple which is heavily crowded on Saturday/Sunday. If you want to avoid this narrow route, take the Doddabelavangala-Nelamangala route. This is like a bypass to avoid Madure and joins the Nelamangala road at a Y-section after Madure.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by deehunk

NPV, it is the Shani temple which is heavily crowded on Saturday/Sunday. If you want to avoid this narrow route, take the Doddabelavangala-Nelamangala route. This is like a bypass to avoid Madure and joins the Nelamangala road at a Y-section after Madure.

Exactly why when I too drove on a Saturday there were cops with barricades blocking entry for trucks and allowing just cars inside Madhure. I was under the impression here that they were asked to take some bypass and no wonder this is true.

Otherwise also, passing this small town is not at all a task to be honest, even on a Saturday.

[ampere]

Definitely a good find folks! Cuts a big stretch out on the bypass route!

On the other side, I see that right at the exit of Sarjapur town post Y toward Baglur, the road is under construction for about 400m. Its all sand gravel for quite some time now. In fact the inner bypass is all good. Its the entry/exit to the town which is now totally messed. One side due to BMTC buses and bus stand traffic and the other side for no reason!

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by ampere

- How good/bad/complete is the 207 work toward Dobbaspet ?

Last week, since I left for Goa around peak evening, it made no sense for me to drive from Yelahanka all the way to Peenya and then get stuck at the signal for that U-Turn and nor I wanted to get stuck at the NBTL or the JAS Nelamangala tolls.

So instead of this, I had 2 choices; One was to take the recently driven Rajankunte - Madhure - Nelamangala or to take Doddaballapur - Dabaspet.

Since it was already 8:00PM when I left, we decided to drive via Doddaballapura.

Here are some updates:

• The State Highway Toll is now operational between Yekahanka and Doddaballapur and we were charged 15 INR one way
  
  
• The road between Yelahanka and Doddaballapur is nearly complete, including one last ROB before the major junction at the town where you have another ROB and the road leads to Devanahalli too
  
  
• Overall, the 4 lane work is nearly complete, but not 100%
  
  
• Doddaballapur - Dabaspet is not complete and a LOT still remains. I was expecting it to be much better since I last drove but I was surprised it hasn't really changed much
  
  
• Pace of the work is slow, really slow and then due to leveling work, the actual width of the road has narrowed down at many places that one may have to come to a dead stop to allow a truck to pass from your right as there is not much room and in darkness it becomes quite tricky. You have at least 5 to 6 such sections
  
  
• There are quite a few diversions, poorly marked
  
  
• However, overall road surface is definitely good with hardly any potholes that I passed even with low visibility (Slight drizzle then).
  
  
• We took exactly 1 hour to reach Dabaspet and merge onto the Pune highway from Yelahanka which was not bad considering the time we left and the jams we may have had to encounter if we had take the usual route out. We would have certainly taken more than 1 hour to reach here otherwise.
  
  
• Also, the drive was pleasant, with less traffic and peaceful

[deehunk]

I experienced one of the worst amateur and unsafe driving in recent times yesterday afternoon on NH48 while returning from Madhugiri between Dobbespet and Kulumepalya Toll plaza stretch. One side you had all these TN trucks virtually driving in sleep on the fast lane, then there were all sorts of LCV's occupying the left lane, the middle lane was up for grabs for car drivers who could criss-cross between HTV's and LCV's. I got pissed off and decided to try the Geddalahalli-Kempohalli-Nelamangala route to escape the crazy traffic. This turned out to be a good decision as I bypassed the toll plaza and ended up very close to Sondekoppa cross. I am a regular user of Sondekoppa-Thavarekere route, so this new route now gives me an option to bypass the Kulumepalya Toll plaza and directly join NH48 near T-Begur without paying any toll. The road condition between Kulumepalya Toll plaza to Nelamangala is a single lane but in decent condition with less traffic.

[gajadonga]

Traveled from Devanahalli to Hosur last weekend

The road from Hoskote to Tirumalashettyhally is bad as one side of the road is unevenly tarred and lots of potholes added to that lorries were swaying between all corners to avoid the uneven roads.

On the way back tried the Tirumalashettyhally - Hoodi- KR Puram - Hebbal route.
Lost my way after Hoodi due to Metro construction .Thanks to Gmaps could reroute myself to KR Puram
It was early morning traffic around 6am was heavy never know how bad after 9am.
Better to avoid this route till Metro work is complete.

[paragsachania]

Update on Dabaspete to Doddaballapura section:

While driving back from Shimoga last Friday, I decided to fork out of NH4 at Dabaspete to take the Doddaballapura road to reach our Yelahanka home. This was decided based on the fact that we would enter Nelamangala around 1915 and things near Peenya and Jalahalli would be messy being a weekday.

In short, Dabaspete Doddaballapura road is still messy (to drive at nights). There are so many sections that are undone (4 lane) and at few sections the road becomes very narrow that traffic towards Doddaballapura has to get off road to allow the oncoming vehicles to pass.

There are multiple unmarked diversions. A very bad execution that affects the safety of motorists.

During the day time, this is still a good choice to bypass Bangalore as the road conditions are not that bad. However, do not attempt this post dusk because you need to be extremely careful around each of the diversions.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by gajadonga

Traveled from Devanahalli to Hosur last weekend

Actually Hosur-Malur-Hoskote may not be a bad option. Quite some updates have happened on the Baglur-Malur section. Might be worth a try. But I also quite some time back that Malur-Hoskote was not all that great. Would be good to check.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by ampere

Actually Hosur-Malur-Hoskote may not be a bad option. Quite some updates have happened on the Baglur-Malur section. Might be worth a try. But I also quite some time back that Malur-Hoskote was not all that great. Would be good to check.

I took part of Hosur-Malur-Hoskote route recently on my way back from Chennai. Joined the NH 207 near Chikka Tirupati.
There are sections with new layer of asphalt and some short work in progress stretches as well where it is graveled but is still manageable. Took about 1H45M to reach the NH 4 junction from Hosur.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by NPV

Took about 1H45M to reach the NH 4 junction from Hosur.

Then this indeed is a long detour. Usually with good conditions on NH207, Devanahalli to Hosur should take about 2 hours max (~90km). But if Hoskote-Hosur itself is eating up 2 hours, then its bad.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by ampere

Then this indeed is a long detour. Usually with good conditions on NH207, Devanahalli to Hosur should take about 2 hours max (~90km). But if Hoskote-Hosur itself is eating up 2 hours, then its bad.

This was good for me to avoid the Attibele-Silk Board-Koramangala traffic mess on a weekday evening (and BETL was being repaired too).

At the Bagalur junction of NH 207 (left turn to continue on 207 and straight for Malur), the straight road towards Malur used to be horrible few months ago but now it is widened a bit and has new tarmac and was very inviting, so I skipped taking NH 207 turn off there

Even gmaps estimates about 1.5 hours for this now. Where I lost time was actually the Hosur-Bagalur stretch which also had trucks making it difficult to overtake. After Bagalur, it was a relaxed drive in low traffic.

This is the route I took - Link