[Samurai]

Yesterday I drove down ampere's route instead of Shiradi, didn't want any surprises.

[mohan41]

I have to drive to Dharmasthala in the coming weekend. I have never driven on Charmadi ghat before, although I have driven on other ghat roads. Is charmady manageable in current conditions during day time? My biggest worry will be if I have to reverse the car on a narrow turn.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by mohan41

My biggest worry will be if I have to reverse the car on a narrow turn.

The Hair Pin curves are sufficient for all cars of all sizes and even regular buses. What makes matters worse is longer chassis buses being driven here who need to reverse on few occasions. KSRTC buses otherwise plying regularly on this route since years take all the 11 Hair Pin curves without much ado and in one shot.

All that you need to follow is simple -

• Honk at every Hair Pin Bend and have your presence felt
• Give way for oncoming vehicles climbing the Hair Pins, Stop much before the Apex than right at the curve
• Don't follow any Heavy vehicle (Truck or a Bus) too closely

[paragsachania]

Finally, its official. 10th August is the D day.

[balechaparka]

Originally Posted by mohan41

I have to drive to Dharmasthala in the coming weekend. I have never driven on Charmadi ghat before, although I have driven on other ghat roads. Is charmady manageable in current conditions during day time? My biggest worry will be if I have to reverse the car on a narrow turn.

Now Charmadi road is good,last week end drove down to Udupi.Started at 3.45AM reached Karkala at 9.45AM with 10 minutes break.After the temple near Ghat there is a narrow stretch where you have to be careful.Rest of the curves are no problems. Already widened the road near curves .

[vinay kamath]

"Shiradi Ghat to open from Aug 10"
By Deepthi Sanjiv, Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Aug 4, 2015, 04.00 AM IST

After lot of speculations and delays, the Shiradi Ghat road connecting Bengaluru with Mangaluru will be open for regular traffic from August 10.

With this, extended journey hours to Bengaluru from Mangaluru will come to an end.

Speaking to reporters in Mangaluru, Minister for forest, environment and ecology and district in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai said that an inspection by ministers and officials will be conducted on August 9 and the road will be opened for all types of vehicles on August 10.

for full text,
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/news/...w/48334781.cms

[srihari154]

Hi All,

Recently became the member of Team-Bhp and this is my first post on this forum .

Travelling to to Puttur tomorrow and amidst all the confusion on the official opening of Shiradi, Are Light Motor Vehicles(cars) being allowed to travel through Shiradi Unofficially? Are the roads wide enough to acomodate two cars to pass through without any issues on both the sides of the road?

The Sampaje route is good, but then will lead to 1 to 2 hrs of extra travel, hence want to avoid it.

Please Advise.

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by srihari154

Travelling to to Puttur tomorrow and amidst all the confusion on the official opening of Shiradi, Are Light Motor Vehicles(cars) being allowed to travel through Shiradi Unofficially? Are the roads wide enough to acomodate two cars to pass through without any issues on both the sides of the road? The Sampaje route is good, but then will lead to 1 to 2 hrs of extra travel, hence want to avoid it.

Please Advise.

For tomorrow, it is risky to try shiradi. It is officially opened on 10th of this month. For puttur, sampaje should be OK.

[ku69rd]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Yesterday I drove down ampere's route instead of Shiradi, didn't want any surprises.

Apologies for my ignorance, can you brief about this 'Ampere's Route'?

[NPV]

Originally Posted by ku69rd

Apologies for my ignorance, can you brief about this 'Ampere's Route'?

Here's a post that will explain 'Ampere's Route' , he will probably trademark this soon
Link

[rajshenoy]

So what is the update on shiradi? Will it open tomorrow? How is the stretch apart from those 13 kms which is good

[paragsachania]

So I and Funkykar drove Mangalore on yesterday and returned today via Shiradi Ghat.

Onward:
We left from Vidyaranyapura exactly at 2:00PM, faced good jams before we actually got onto NBTL elevated highway, refueled after Solur, Had late lunch at Swati (End of Kunigal Bypass), Pulled over at the end of Channarayapatna bypass for 15 minutes to attend an important call, Stopped for Coffee at Sakleshpura at 05:30PM, and reached Pumpwell exactly at 08:15PM.

Return:
We left Mangalore (Pumpwell) at 10:00AM, stopped for Breakfast at Uppinangadi at 10:40PM, refueled at IOCL, Udyapura, Ice Cream lunch at Polar Bear (Next to Swati, Kunigal bypass), Vidyaranyapura, Bangalore home exactly at 3:00PM.

Road Conditions between Sakleshpura-Donigal-Gundya-Nellyadi-Uppinangadi-BC Road-Pumpwell:

1. Hassan-Sakleshpura - Excellent roads

2. Sakleshpura - Donigal - Good roads

3. 12 Kms of the new concrete road: This is all completed only in terms of building the road. Road markings, shoulders, railings etc still have a long way to go before a proper road user can call this complete.

Otherwise, this 12 kms stretch is just like any other concrete road, same width as earlier carriageway was.

Caution: The shoulders are dangerous and currently filled with loose sand & Gravel in few sections while most of the sections have nothing and you almost drive on the edge which is easily 1ft thick good enough to topple your car if you veer off the main carriageway. This particular condition needs immediate attention as it will certainly make driving at nights (and rains) very dangerous. My local friends here already reported 8 such accidents soon after this was unofficially opened for traffic few days before.

Unless the authorities build a stronger shoulder which is good enough to withstand rains, I can assure that the current set-up(shoulder) will easily get washed away in days to come.

4. Rest of the road till Mangalore:
All other parts of this ghat right after this concrete stretch all the way till Gundya remain in excellent state. In fact Gundya BC road too is wonderful to drive. So those who have apprehensions about how good is the whole road holding up, have no worries, its all good end to end now.

Note: Till today, they were allowing only LMVs and Light Passenger vehicles. No Trucks and No buses as yet.

Will this open on tomorrow:? From all probabilitiesYES! Work was in full swing at least to cover up most of the sections including shoulders. Wherever there are dangerous shoulders they had kept bricks (Today) to caution the drivers.

Here are a few pictures taken on yesterday:

This is the makeshift entry gate from Donigal side. Notice that they didn't allow that truck while we passed







This picture is to highlight how dangerous are these undone shoulders.



This was at the other end of the road which was all clear today as they had removed the heap of soil from here.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Will this open on tomorrow:? From all probabilitiesYES! Work was in full swing at least to cover up most of the sections including shoulders. Wherever there are dangerous shoulders they had kept bricks (Today) to caution the drivers.

The picture in this newspaper report (link below) shows the single bricks kept upright at the edge of the road. Such curves in the ghat road are places where the shoulders will typically be used by vehicles while maneuvering them and will definitely be dangerous for vehicles if they tread down the shoulders at these places, hope this is fixed soon.
As per the report the minister has inaugurated the stretch for vehicular traffic yesterday.
Source:New Indian Express, Bangalore 10 Aug 2015, "Shiradi Ghat opens for Traffic" - Link

[paragsachania]

Yes NPV. Something like this is what Authorities think is good enough to warn motorists!!

This is how safety takes a back seat and hype surrounding on how good the road is makes into the news first!!

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Caution: The shoulders are dangerous and currently filled with loose sand & Gravel in few sections while most of the sections have nothing and you almost drive on the edge which is easily 1ft thick good enough to topple your car if you veer off the main carriageway. This particular condition needs immediate attention as it will certainly make driving at nights (and rains) very dangerous. My local friends here already reported 8 such accidents soon after this was unofficially opened for traffic few days before.

Unless the authorities build a stronger shoulder which is good enough to withstand rains, I can assure that the current set-up(shoulder) will easily get washed away in days to come.

Originally Posted by NPV

The picture in this newspaper report (link below) shows the single bricks kept upright at the edge of the road. Such curves in the ghat road are places where the shoulders will typically be used by vehicles while maneuvering them and will definitely be dangerous for vehicles if they tread down the shoulders at these places, hope this is fixed soon.

When I saw the photos in the newspaper which other members had posted in July, the first thing I noticed was how deep the road shoulder is. And I had thought this would be dangerous if they were not done up properly (given the amount of rain which falls in the area).

You guys have echoed my thoughts. This is actually a very serious safety hazard especially in the ghats since overtaking maneuvers can go horribly wrong and most drivers will be forced off the road while doing so. Most drivers don't care to bother if there are vehicles coming from the opposite direction