I had done the Thirthalli-Hulikal-Siddapura route sometime in January this year and the Hulikal ghat was pretty bad. Thirthalli -Hulikal stretch was good till the Varahi project area, but after that, it was horrible. With the monsoons hitting in full force, I doubt, the situation would have improved. Hulikal ghat did have 'some' good sections though. Once you get down the ghats, there are patched up roads till Siddapura and beyond.

Thanks guys - will avoid Hulikal in that case, although have been planning to do that stretch for quite some time now. In all probability I will take this route for onward and this route for return journey. Any feedback?

Hi guys,
What will be best route from sakleshpur to udipi presently? Keeping in view the heavy rains happening lately. The mangalore route seems the most straightforward and used here. Anyone has used the sakleshpur>>Mudigere>>charmadi >> moodabidri lately.How is road quality right now? Will this be faster than the usual sakleshpur >> mangalore >> udupi route.Kindly also advise which route to take after moodabidri. thanks

Will be driving from mysore to kukke subramanya this friday evening.
Please suggest the best route considering the current road conditions.

It does not make sense to go upto Sakleshpur and then deviate towards Mudigere. For Moodabidri, you can take

Bangalore-Hassan-Sakleshpur-Gundya-Dharmasthala-Belthangadi-Moodabidri route
or
Bangalore-Hassan-Belur-Mudigere-Charmadi ghat-Ujire-Belthangady-Moodabidri

Thanks, Forgot to mention that i had some work in sakleshpur and thereon wanted to reach udipi the fastest, so thought to try out the moodabidri route.

Update from 16th Sep: Took the road to Udupi via Shiradi. But for the ghat section, the roads are fantastic and I would still recommend this route for this short distance and convenience. Actually, its just the 7-10kms stretch before Kukke Subramanyam junction that is bad on road surface - but you can still manage an average of 30-40kmph (which is still not bad, considering how these roads used to be)

Point#1: I dont know why the toll junction charged me Rs36/- after Kunigal, even when i paid the same amount after Nelamangala - especially because the 4 lane is complete only till Kunigal. Maybe, it is because he thought i joined the road in between. I will check this on the way back, and update.

Point#2: If you are a meat eater like me, do check out Hotel Imperial at Sakleshpur (the one adjacent to Ossor). Pretty good Dhaba style food.

Point#3: If you leave from Bellandur or HSR, I would not recommend the ORR till RNS motors. The traffic at KR puram, Hebbal, and the railway junctions that come after this can really spoil the mood.
Btw, i drove on a Corolla 2005 with a kid in the front (yes, highly not recommended on a car with airbags). So the speeds were medium.

4 laning is complete upto Devihalli (just after Bellur Cross), about 35 kms after Kunigal.

The 2 tolls are apparently for 2 stretches between Nelamangala-Kunigal and Kunigal-Devihalli (just after Bellur Cross). Earlier the toll rates were Rs.33 at each toll, but from the past month they have been charging Rs.36 each way. The 2 stretches are about 40 kms each and the toll is approx approx 1 rupee per kilometer.


Once the 4 laning is complete till Hassan, 2 more toll booths are expected, one between Devihalli-Channarayapatna and the other between Channarayapatna-Hassan. Driving on that road is becoming expensive by the day.

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, i agree that the roads are still not worth the price. There are safety issues because of the frequent access breaks in the divider for crossing across towns - and i hope this will be addressed. But still, i somehow did not mind paying the amount twice, only because the 4 laning makes the drive so much more smoother.

Took the Shiradi route - MLR - BLR today morning.
The section between Gundya and Sakleshpur is not very good. about 30km of intermittent bad patches. When I say bad patches; the top 3 to 6 inches of the blacktop has come off in many places. Still doable - a little slowly. On the Bengalooru - Mangalore leg, I started at 4:45AM, got to BC Rd at 10:15. My GPS calculated a moving average of 60kmph. [100-120 in the good stretches & below 30 kmph negotiating the potholes.]
Check out a few of the snaps I clicked!

Attached Thumbnails

 

 

 

 

 

22Sep: Drive was good except for the 10km stretch everyone has been talking about. Know what, we have seen the good ol' crater days of mining lorries. This is nothing in comparison to that. Just the black top is off at a few places (consequently dusty). Dont worry, take this route. We did Bangalore-Udupi in 7.5 hours. It hasnt been raining, so it should be really fine.

Hey guys,

Did Bangalore-Kundapura-Bangalore last week. Given the ongoing 4-lane work b/w Mangalore-Kundapura and the ensuing mess, I avoided NH-17 completely and took interior roads. This cost me some extra time but the drive was peaceful and stress free given almost zilch traffic and awesome scenery.

Here is a quick summary:

Onward route - GMap URL [~465 km/9 hours including 2 breaks]
Nothing specific to report on the stretch from Bangalore till Sakleshpura - ORR from Hebbal to Yeshwantpur is as painful as ever, excellent 4-lane till just after Belur Cross, ongoing 4-lane work till Hassan, and the charming Hassan-Sakleshpura stretch. Shiradi ghats are getting back to their old shape with intermittent bad stretches and growing potholes - still very decent compared to the "dark days" though Even the Dharmastala road is going bad and many bad patches have appeared. The Ujjire-Belthangady-Karkala stretch is mostly good. The interior roads I took from Karkala to Kundapura (please refer to the GMap link) were surprisingly good, except for some bad patches on the Karkala-Mudradi stretch, and made for a pleasant drive - the 90 km stretch took me just over 2 hours.

Return route - GMap URL [~ 470 km/10 hours including 3 breaks]
The route taken for the return leg was mostly same as the onward one but for the fact that I took Charmadi ghats instead of Shiradi. Charmadi ghat road is still holding up and is in a good shape, especially once you enter Chikmagalur district, the road is a delight to drive on (refer to pic at bottom of the post). Jannapura (where you get off Charmadi-Belur highway) to Sakleshpura is a 28 km drive, about 10-12 km of it being bad. Also, most of this stretch is a single lane road with deep shoulders at some places - cars with lower GC might have trouble getting off the road to give way to oncoming vehicles. I took this road as I had some work at Sakleshpura or else I'd have continued towards Belur and joined NH48 at Hassan - that would have saved me around a half-hour. However, the 28 km stretch takes you through some very pretty vistas including coffee estates and paddy fields.

Let me know if you have any specific queries on any of the above stretches.

Happy driving...

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It was time again for me to visit Dharmasthala, had many times thought about going via Charmadi ghat but somehow it had not materialised. This time I wanted to go via Charmadi atleast once so decided to take Charmadi ghat road while going from Bangalore and kept the option of Shiradi for coming back. As usual I started at 5.00 am and took the NICE road-Magadi-Kunigal route which I always feel better in the early morning because of almost zero traffic, I joined the National highway at Kunigal by 6.45 am. As many have updated the toll fee is now Rs.36 at Bellur, reached Hassan at 8.20 am and stopped at Kadamba Comforts for breakfast. After energising myself with a very tasty Masala dosa I left for Dharmasthala at around 8.50 am. My wife wanted me to stick to Shiradi ghat but I wanted to take Charmadi and finally had my say only. I had driven only till Hagare earlier so was not sure how the road was upto Belur and ahead so decided to stick to nominal speeard and reached Belur by around 9.30 am and then Mudigere by 10.15 am. I climbed down Charmadi by 11.15 am. I would say the road is good for about 60% and the rest is as good as Shiradi only of course the road is small. The traffic was bad inside Ujire town and finally reached Dharmasthala by 12.00 noon. There was less crowd and was able to complete the darshan by 1.30 pm and started back to Bangalore at 2.20 pm. The roads are pretty bad compared to last time I visited in January, the road further worsens after Gundya for a good 15km stretch again as compared to my last visit. I did a stop at Ossor restaurant for sometime on the way and finally reached home at 9.00pm. I still feel Shiradi ghat is the better road compared to Charmadi, have taken some of the images of road condition in Charmadi and will upload them shortly

Wow the 2nd picture is just mind blowing, maybe if you parked your car in the sunlight and shot it, it would have been a poster pic.

planning to do a family (4) temple trip :
blore-kukke-dharmasthala-udupi-kateel-mangalore-bangalore

plan :
1. blore-NH75-gundya-kukke
2. kukke-kadaba-ichilampady-dharmasthala
3. dharmasthala-ujire-guruvayenkere-SH70-moodabidiri-karkala-SH37-udupi
4. udupi-NH-karnad-kateel
5. kateel-mangalore(kadri)-NH75-blore

I generally expect bad patches here and there (or is it everywhere ?) due to the monsoon; but I am particularly concerned whether there are any really bad lunar-surface level craters in any of the above (especially 2,3,4)
Since I am a newbie to the roads in canara region, I would appreciate if anyone could suggest alternate routes that would be kinder to man & machine.
Thanks in advance