[TonyJames]

Yesterday Travel journey from Mangalore to Bangalore. After having breakfast started from Mangalore at 8:15 AM. Road was fine until Bantwal, but from Bantwal to Madikeri road cut, it was so bad and kind of mud road. It took around 20 minutes to cross the 7 Kms stretch. Car traffic was little high until Puttur. From Puttur to Madikeri it was clean and roads were in perfect condition.

Reached Madikeri around 11:15. From Madikeri to Mysore, it can be good and painful with occasional car traffic pile ups and city traffic in Kushal nagar, Hunsur and Periyapatna can get choked. Reached Mysuru ring Road at 1:10 PM and from there on it was an absolute breeze. Stopped for a small break for 10 mins in the expressway.

Reached Kengeri around 2:40 PM. Took the Nice Road bypass and joined the Electronic City Underpass - Madiwala - Domlur. Traffic was less during the afternoon time and reached Indiranagar by 3:40 PM.

Overall journey time 7hrs and 25 mins. I think this the best route currently considering charmady route is also undergoing works.

[onthewheels]

Hi Everyone,

An unplanned visit to Surathkal has come up, and I need to travel tomorrow. Since last 3 years, I have been going via Charmadi route and never felt the need to change the route. However, the ongoing road widening work near Ujire has made me rethink this time.

Has anyone travelled recently via Charmadi or Shiradi route?
Which one is the favorable route, considering the road works in both the routes?

Thanks in advance.

[jkrishnakj]

I took the Mysore, Madikeri, Sulia route to Udupi. Barring a couple of km of bad stretches and diversion near Kalladka and Mani, the rest of the route is very good. You may want to try that.

[SilverSurferHC]

I did Bangalore udupi Bangalore last week and took the Dharmastala route.

Left bangalore @6:03 and took a break at Halli Mane. Drove through Sakleshpur, navigating shiradi Ghat. Roads are decent apart from narrow stretch of inconveniencepost Shakleshpur town. Took a detour to dharmastala - Ujire - Karkala - Padubidri to Udupi. Reached udupi at 1:30 Pm with a break near ujire.

Took the same route back. Left at 11:45AM and lunch break at Ocean pearl Ujire. The drive was less tiring compared to Shiradi( via Mangalore - Kalladka - Gundya) or Charmadi. Took a break to pick up Jackfruit ( after Hassan) ( lost around 30 minutes) and tea break at Pakashale. Reached yelahanka at 7:30 PM. Took a detour from Nelamangala (Google suggested a shorter route. It was isolated but managable as few other vehicles following suite)

I would be taking this route till the Sakleshpur BC Road stetch gets better.

[Samurai]

Today I traveled from Bangalore to Udupi via Shiradi. I was surprised to find out that the Sakleshpur Bypass has finally opened. All 4-lanes are not open, but you can avoid the town entirely. The bypass starts a little after passing Ossoor restaurant, and then joins the old road around Durga International hotel.

The bypass is marked in red.

[MobileThunder]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Today I traveled from Bangalore to Udupi via Shiradi. I was surprised to find out that the Sakleshpur Bypass has finally opened. All 4-lanes are not open, but you can avoid the town entirely. The bypass starts a little after passing Ossoor restaurant, and then joins the old road around Durga International hotel.

The bypass is marked in red.

Wow this is good to hear. I did the trip a month ago and did not get to use the bypass.
I did the onward trip via Sakleshpur - Subrahmanya, Dharmasthala...and returned via Belur.

[ampere]

I am curios to find out when the will Tumkur-Shimoga 4-lane open up with all bypasses in place. That should really help. Also I hope in anticipation of this 4-lane the Tumkur bypass has been improved on west side of the town.

[Gokrish]

Planning a trip to Suratkal from Chennai on 1st March. Any latest update on the routes. I am also open to taking Shiradi Ghat route this time if any repair work is happening at Charmadi Ghat route. Please suggest.

[TonyJames]

Originally Posted by Gokrish

Planning a trip to Suratkal from Chennai on 1st March. Any latest update on the routes. I am also open to taking Shiradi Ghat route this time if any repair work is happening at Charmadi Ghat route. Please suggest.

Currently Best route is Chennai - Hosur - Electronic city - NICE Road - Mysuru - Madikeri - Mangalore -Surathkal is best since Charmadi Ghat is undergoing road works and Shiradi Ghat is also work in progress.

Madikeri route is best for roads in best condition based on my recent journey.

[lambuhere1]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Today I traveled from Bangalore to Udupi via Shiradi. I was surprised to find out that the Sakleshpur Bypass has finally opened. All 4-lanes are not open, but you can avoid the town entirely. The bypass starts a little after passing Ossoor restaurant, and then joins the old road around Durga International hotel.

The bypass is marked in red.

Attachment 2576378

Samurai,


Planning for Mangalore trip on this weekend.


With the new bypass, would Hassan - Sakleshpura - Gundya - Shiradi - Uppinangady - Kallyaru - Mangalore, a better choice ?


Any road constructions on the above route, or should I pick another route for the low cg vehicle >?



Is the bypass at Sakleshpura be easily identified ?


Want to miss out the road works on Charmadi side.


Appreciate help

[livyodream]

Has anyone travelled on this route lately? Wanted to know if there is any construction activity going on in this stretch too.

Belur - Balehonnur - Harirapura - Agumbe- Hebri



Since time and distance are same from Belur to Manipal, want to try out the not so frequent route.

[qr20de]

Hello everyone,

Just did a round trip of around 2600km from Chennai to Udupi and thought I'd mention a few points here for the benefit of other members, looking to do a drive or just for information:

Chennai - Bangalore: whole bunch of information already available on the forum, no need to elaborate or waste time writing about the horrendous road conditions between Sriperumbudur and Chennasamudram

Bangalore - Hassan: Epic roads! Smooth dual carriage with barely any traffic. However, watch out for two/three diversions where upon joining the proper track again, there are massive bumps camouflaged in the tarmac. So merge back gently. My suggestion is to continue on NH 75 slightly past Hassan, take a right at Anachihalli, back track a little to Hassan and take a left through Vijay Nagar and join the Belur road.

Hassan - Belur: NH373: Single carriage, no potholes but bad tarmac, lots of heavy traffic and occasional speed breakers. Be cautious.

Belur - Kakkinje (approximately): Ghat roads, mostly smooth, about 4/5 lane closures, the occasional heavy vehicle. Watch out for bikers coming into your lane especially in the corners, thinking they are 'Rossi of the hills'.

Kakkinje - Ujjire: About 3/4km of gravel roads. Thankfully its not rutted/corrugated so its a smooth drive but still be wary of lots of stones. The towns between have a bit of traffic but nothing abnormal.

Ujjire - Mudbidri - Mulki: Amazing road! Smooth tarmac and low traffic. Easy to cruise.

The return journey:

Udupi - Bajagoly - Belthangady - Uppinangady - Subramanya: Once again really nice roads, few gravel diversions because of road widening works but still smooth overall. Very picturesque drive.

Subramanya - Patla - Somwarpet: An absolutely wonderful drive due to the lush forests, rivers and views. The roads are a little rough but the scenery is incredible! One of the best roads I've driven.

Somwarpet - Mysore: The usual single carriage with loads of traffic, barriers and speed breakers. I really don't know why this has not been expanded.

Overall a wonderful road trip.

[Gokrish]

Originally Posted by qr20de

Bangalore - Hassan: Epic roads! Smooth dual carriage with barely any traffic. However, watch out for two/three diversions where upon joining the proper track again, there are massive bumps camouflaged in the tarmac. So merge back gently. My suggestion is to continue on NH 75 slightly past Hassan, take a right at Anachihalli, back track a little to Hassan and take a left through Vijay Nagar and join the Belur road.

Can you please share the exact route map of this deviation for better understanding? By the way, why are you suggesting this slight deviation?

[onthewheels]

Originally Posted by Samurai

The bypass is marked in red.

Today I travelled from Surathkal to Bengaluru via Shiradi and looks like I missed the bypass. Next time I will look out for this. Thank you for this tip @Samurai.

Originally Posted by Gokrish

Planning a trip to Suratkal from Chennai on 1st March. Any latest update on the routes. I am also open to taking Shiradi Ghat route this time if any repair work is happening at Charmadi Ghat route. Please suggest.

Repair works are in full swing in both Shiradi and Charmadi routes now. There will be many trucks/tankers in Shiradi route. But still I could cover the distance faster via Shiradi route. Started at 7:15AM from Surathkal and reached Bengaluru by 245PM with one stop for lunch.

Originally Posted by lambuhere1

Any road constructions on the above route, or should I pick another route for the low cg vehicle >?

Appreciate help

I will post some videos of the Shiradi route for reference. There are some deviations which come up suddenly, so need to be careful, especially if someone is driving at night. If you don't mind mild off-roading , low GC shouldn't be a problem.


Video links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBdrREwPRFs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtT0kvTJGSs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye2cEWByR5Q

[gopa99]

Just back from Kollur to Bangalore after a 2 night road trip. I started late, 9am and took the nice road from Electronic City and reached nelamangala and later the town exit to kunigal, Yadiyur, Channarayapatana and reached Hassan almost effortlessly and quickly with excellent roads through out. Took the lunch break at Dwaraka Veg hotel which had spotless bathrooms and great ambience for a decent price. Post Hassan, roads suddenly changed from the 4 lane to a single lane. Hassan to belur road and balehonnur was bad, broken and messy. Took the Sringeri, Agumbe road to Kollur which was decent, this ghat section was having good tarmac. Crossing the someshwara wildlife sanctuary, I noticed couple of accidents on the ghat section due to over-speeding. The return journey we decided to take the bus route from kollur to bangalore which took us from nittur, nagara stretch, there is road laying work happening on some sections. Later we took the hosanagara, ripponpet and aiyanur to reach shimoga. We topped up fuel at Aiyanur thinking to take the badra road, but was advised by the fuel station guy not to do that stretch instead take the NH route. We had lunch at Shimoga at slv paakashala which was by the kuvempu road, which is a nice pick for an AC ambiance and just 95 INR south meals. Road from there via hollalkere to chitradurga is sngle lane but well laid tarmac. Rest to Nelamangala via NH with lots of trucks with no lane discipline was frustrating but roads were decent 6 lane. Overall our trip was with 4 to 5 relaxed breaks and we took about 11 hours each on our onward and return routes.