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-   -   The art of travelling between Bangalore - Mangalore/Udupi (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/91125-art-travelling-between-bangalore-mangalore-udupi-14.html)

Do check my post, I have mentioned as approximation, approximation is beacuse of the recent road condition.

How far is Mangalore -Bangalore via Kushalnagar?...
U got to be flying now if you have done it in 6hrs flat

Hi Pramod, Very true. Almost the same and what a co-incidence. You have clicked some very good photos during your trip.

Best Regards/Satish Prabhu

Yeah buddy...was literally flying after Kushalnagar. The entire route comes up to 395 kms. Do not get too personal about things. It was just an exclamation not a statement intended at contradicting your view. Maybe we both can do Bangalore-Madikeri-Mangalore together sometime:)

I'm just back after a weekend drive through the Bangalore-Shiradi-Mangalore route and back.
It took me 7.5 hours (5AM to 1:30 PM Blr-Mlr) and 9 hours on the way back ... relaxed drive.
- Bangalore-Nelamangala-Hassan is a breeze and comfortably do-able in 3 hours.
- Hassan By-pass stretch has lot of huge potholes as usual.
- Hassan-Sakleshpur road condition is Ok
- @Shiradi the entire tar layer is eroded off at many places and is very dusty road, slow slow drive takes about 1 hour from Sakleshpur to Gundya and a bit more on the way back.
Overall the route is is motorable, all types of cars are plying
- Gundiya to Mangalore: There are regular bad patches here and there but manageable.

Cheers

A local daily was mentioning that a total of 56 crores were spent on Shiradi ghat section alone for repairs which didn't even last 5 months.

From what I heard from my in laws who took the route last week, their Esteem was very much in a 'begging for mercy mood' while they were going over that part of the route. After Hassan, till Bangalore, is in good shape. Some work going on for the 4 lane highway in some parts though.

speedzak, it dint last for a month properly:)

5 months! no way. The road was opened on 3rd June 2008. By end of June 08, it was reported in papers that the bitumen layer is coming off and roads have started to show potholes.

Oops! Then it should've been 50days or something in the newspaper. I just passed thru the news.

Hi,
Last weekend I was Driving down to Mangalore from Bangalore in my Fiat Petra in the Night.
The Ghat Section Road (Shiradi Ghat) is absolute Hellish to drive. This Ghat was Closed for almost 6 monthin the begining of this year for repair and they spent Crores of money Repairing this section. I believe the Section was opened on 01-Jun-2008 for public and alas within Aug 15 (2.5 Months) the Road was Back to Original Condition. That was the fantastic :Shockked: work done on this Road.
Last Time (Aug 12) when I drove down I had almost Rs.5000/- damage. This Time a stone hit my Silecer and it broke and I had huge sound/noise till Mangalore (till Garage in Mangalore Next Day) and again huge Bill.
Why this section of Road is like this? Any thoughts?

Until May 2006, this road used to be in great shape. In fact, nobody would ask a question like "How to go from Bangalore to Mangalore". There were people who would talk about doing it in 4 hours or 5 hours.

Then, the government decided to let Shiradi Ghats go to dogs. They allowed mine trucks that are loaded 2-3 times more than the rated load to ply on this stretch. The road was not designed for that kind of load or in that volume. Nothing can be done about it since the most powerful politicians (from every party) in the state happen to be mine owners. The NH-17 which I had admired all my life, turned into National Horror 17.

Currently this is what I wish. The demand for steel should go so low that these mine owners would be forced to stop mining. That's the only way we will get our roads back.

I am back after a drive to udupi(via hasan-shiradi-dharmastala), road was good except 30 odd kms of shiradi + 10 km of hassan bypass.. so i would say 90% of the road is still great to drive on

It took me around 8hrs+1 hr break to cover 425 kms(decent i suppose) condition of shiradi is baaad(but thats what i expected and since i went with this mindset, i managed it) but what i noticed is alot of new bad stretches after shiradi too and here the road is not concrete as well

One more thing, the concrete work done is excellent and still remains, but sadly they did concrete only for the curves and as soon as the curve ends.. the road has gone bad, time to extend the concrete for the entire stretch i suppose and not allowing any traffic till its completely set

Forgot to mention my return journey..started at 9 AM from udupi and took the same route, but this time with lots of luggage and also from places like karkala which slowed my pace..still manage to reach yashwanthpur by 5:45PM, but then my badluck started.. it took me 2:30 hrs to cover last 12 kms inside bangalore..finally reached home..totally exhausted.

What hurts me even more is these guys(A*****es are exporting the iron ore(soil)and not the processed iron and steel. cheap way to make money isnt it .. overload the truck with precious soil(bleeding our western ghats) and export it in ships to say china.. who needs investment ? who needs to setup big steel factories ? i would say this is more punishable than smuggling:Frustrati

Rajesh, you went via Dharmastha Ujre- Karkala?

Am planning to drive down tomorrow thinking should i take Charmadi or Shiradi....the road condition post Gondya is not great either so wondering ging via charmadi makes sense??

Agree with Samurai....i hardly remember of any bad patches on shiradi-BC road stretch...it was fantastic... as Samurai mentioned dont think the roads would get any better till these trucks stop plying on these roads...

Yes you reach any time after 3-4pm then you are sure to spend 2-3hrs...happend so many times with me :)

I will be taking off to Kudla early in the morning tomorrow....seems like it makes sense for me to go via charmadi - ujre - bc road or to karkala and then mlore?

One of the main reasons on why it is in this sad condition is because of the PEOPLE(US) who are going through hell even then we are keeping quiet!

Yes Lohit, i took this route.. its really nice.. with only few rough patches(very very few..somewhere near naravi i guess) also you will love driving on this..narrow winding roads

I feel if someone is driving to Udupi, this makes more sense as you can save upto 1-2 hrs and distance wise it came up to 417(via mangalore around 435km) plus no traffic at all for 120+ kms

About the road, last time i didnt remember much bad stretches after shiradi(till the diversion you take to dharmastala) but this time i was too desperate to reach to that diversion and it was taking more and more time

That's why you say 90% of the route is still motorable :). Wondered who did the asphalting in 2 weeks time. The drive from Pumpwell junction to Hassan is too bad.

That's right, Rai and Lohith. Here's a view put forward by my uncle who had worked in the PWD few years back. He says the roads must be designed to take a load of 70 tonnes (it might be higher now). The mining tankers laden weight might not exceed 45 tonnes. This only points to poor quality of work by the contractors involved, and the supervision/inspection done by the authorities.

Hi Lohith, do post the condition of your alternate route taken.