[MX6]

Originally Posted by ampere

MX,

I thought One is maps of India while other is MMI. Is that same source?

The embedded pic in my post is MMI where as the link I'd posted there is Maps of India.
Same link posted by HVK in his post as well.

[ampere]

My mistake. I did not realize that.

When I saw NH13 marked in such a fashion in Satguide, I really got if these guys dont do a
good Quality control of what they are printing/drawing.

This may OK (still not acceptable) for State Highways, but cannot be OK at all for National Highways.
At least some level of sanity needs to prevail. Very shocking on the mapping details!

[pramod]

Agumbe - Someshwara is a State highway and is SH 1.

NH13 should take :

Chitradurga - Bhadravathi - Shimogga - Gajanur - Theerthalli - Koppa - Kalasa - Kudremukh - SK Border - Karkala.

NH13 does NOT take CKM

[MX6]

Guess it's to do with the unlucky number 13!
Anyway guys, for people following SmartCat's trip to Surathkal, just a quick update.
The Cat has reached Surathkal safe and sound!

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by MX6

Guess it's to do with the unlucky number 13!
Anyway guys, for people following SmartCat's trip to Surathkal, just a quick update.
The Cat has reached Surathkal safe and sound!

This shows how much our roads have improved
Lets hope the road condition stays the same when he brings new member home as well

[adi99]

Last week, I said Shiradi Ghat road is good and pothole free. I just came back to Blore today and the experience was different. The first 25% (if you are climbing up) is almost gone!

[370Z]

Originally Posted by recshenoy

How are roads between Mangalore and BC road now.

Our bus took a diversion from pumpwell yesterday night and went via Konaje to re join the NH-48 at Melkar! I saw other KSRTC volvos and Rajahamsas as well on this stretch! I forgot to ask about reason behind diversion with driver!

Road on Bykampady mini bridge is totally gone causing frequent jams!

Latest news I heard that, last week Mangalore MLA Palemar had discussion with NHAI officials. They have promised to complete the Koloor and Suratkal flyover by October. But not sure which October

I drove in Mangalore to BC Road stretch two weeks ago. The road conditions are bad. Two lane construction is still going on, there are huge potholes and lane diversions. And, wherever the road surface is good, the tar layer levels keep changing. It's difficult to drive in that road in night. I managed to tail a Tempo Traveler who seemed to know how to navigate in that stretch.

[MX6]

Originally Posted by adi99

Last week, I said Shiradi Ghat road is good and pothole free. I just came back to Blore today and the experience was different. The first 25% (if you are climbing up) is almost gone!

Originally Posted by 370Z

I drove in Mangalore to BC Road stretch two weeks ago. The road conditions are bad. Two lane construction is still going on, there are huge potholes and lane diversions. And, wherever the road surface is good, the tar layer levels keep changing. It's difficult to drive in that road in night. I managed to tail a Tempo Traveler who seemed to know how to navigate in that stretch.

For a moment I thought I'd be lost in unknown territory with some excellent roads. seems that bad roads are here to stay!
Now the mining lorries will cry foul. They are banned I heard till November, then how did the road condition deteriorate?

[rkrpxz]

adi99, can you please clarify what you mean exactly by the first 25%? I am going to be traveling between Bangalore & Kukke Subramanya this weekend, and I would like to know if the 'first 25%' includes any section of the road that I will be traveling on. And, by 'gone', do you mean that that road is consistently very bad, or is it bad in patches?

Thanks,
Swaroop

Originally Posted by adi99

Last week, I said Shiradi Ghat road is good and pothole free. I just came back to Blore today and the experience was different. The first 25% (if you are climbing up) is almost gone!

[SmartCat]

I didn't notice the "missing first 25% when going up" bit - I just came back from Surathkal today. BC Road is bad as usual (but we have seen worse, yeah). After that, the stretch still Gundya is brilliant.

At the hairpins/ghat, you will ocassionaly find massive sized potholed roads, but nothing serious. My Honda Civic with 5 passengers + boot full of luggage managed without any scraping (of course, with some careful driving). You will generally find these chipped/potholes roads near the bridges - else, the road is fine.

And I have noticed that repair work (meaning, filling up potholes with jelly stones & mud!) is going on at every bad stretch of road. But I'm not quite sure if it is helping - it is only making a road more slippery.

And everybody, thanks for suggesting the Shiradi Ghat rather than the Madikeri route - wifey is safe at her home now

[mooza]

Originally Posted by smartcat

And I have noticed that repair work (meaning, filling up potholes with jelly stones & mud!) is going on at every bad stretch of road.

@smartcat, nice to know you had a safe trip !

Yes, during last week's trip I saw some road rollers moving about near the 2 to 3 bad stretches, but I do sincerely hope the patch up extends beyond the jelly & mud, to some blobs of tar as well

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by smartcat

wifey is safe at her home now

That is all that matters.

infact, we were get near real time RSS feed about your trip from you know who.

Yes you are right, the quick and shabby patchwork will make the roads more slippery

they should make the Shiradi Ghat like Mumbai-Pune Express way (Lonavala-Khandala stretch). that is the only long term solution to the probelm.

else ART (of driving) with florish, Craft of roadmaking (again and again) will also boom. Crafts men will make money, Artisans will grumble and get frustrated.

[deepax]

Been to MLR on 18th and returned last evening to BLR. I some what agree with adi99 mentioning about the condition of the Shiradi Ghat. Towards last stretch of ghat (blr > mlr) we could see that the road has started showing signs of opening up. While returning we could see the initial stretch of the ghat is damaged because of the rain or may be bad work. Curves and entrances of the narrow bridges have potholes. If the rains continue to fall in similar force the ghat section will have its old problems again.

Mlr - BC Road stretch is much better. on 21st they had closed for normal traffic for some maintenance work. But it is open now. However, roads in BC Road is in real bad condition. That is the place my Swift back right mud guard got a impact.

@smartcat - Could manage most of the pot holes except at one place where I felt the under body got hit once. Your updates holds good in my return journey too!

All in all it was a great first trip to Mangalore and back. This will encourage me and my family to have further trips in this stretch and may avoid Bus or Train if the roads in this stretch are good.

Thanks to all team-bhpians who provided all the route information, eating place, etc.

Cheers Guys

[rkrpxz]

This is my first travelogue, so please bear with me if I don't use the buzz words and phrases that I normally read in this forum.

Last weekend, I drove to Kukke Subramanya with my wife and her 2 sisters. Overall, it was a great trip. I thought I would post this for the benefit of others who may be planning a trip in that direction.

First of all, I believe that the driving experience is not just a function of the road conditions, but a combination of road conditions, traffic, weather and other more subtle parameters. So, for example, even though the road from Kunigal to CR Patna was smooth, the road widening work created too many abrupt bumps to make the experience memorable (in a good way).

Before I summarize the latest road conditions, I'd like to categorize roads as: Hummer, Rumbler & Rattler. The meanings of these categories should be self-evident.

• Bangalore - Magadi - Poor initially, later very good; congested sometimes
• Magadi - Kunigal - Bad in Magadi, much better after the fork towards Kunigal; very little traffic
• Kunigal - Channarayapatna - construction; highway widening in progress; sudden bumps due to the work that is going on
• Channarayapatna - Hassan - Very good for the most part
• Hassan - Sakleshpur - Very good for the most part
• Sakleshpur - Gundya - Terrible for the most part; huge potholes, gravel strewn all over which bounces off the tires on to the underside of the car constantly; extraordinarily scenic, but the road takes a real beating in terms of heavy traffic (oil tankers mostly) and rains
• Gundya - Subramanya - Beautiful, scenic, black tar top road in very good condition

No problems on our onward journey. I drive a Honda City '06 with automatic transmission. We started at about 11:20am from Malleswaram. I stuck the gas pedal around 80-90 kmph almost all the time with rare bursts to 120 kmph. Stopped for lunch at Kamat Upachar outside CR Patna. Stopped several times for snapshots of the scenery and to get up close and personal with waterfalls. It took me almost 7.5 hrs to reach Kukke (around 6:40pm). We stayed at the Sheshanag Ashraya, where we had made reservations. Very decent hotel for a one-night stay. Next morning, we did the darshan and headed back around 2pm. We did the return journey almost non-stop with my wife doing the driving for about an hour between Sakleshpur and Hassan. There was a massive traffic jam between Hassan and CR Patna because of an oil tanker that had gone off the road. Traffic didn't budge for about 45 min. Luckily, it didn't explode or catch fire, else things would have been far worse. Between Magadi & Bangalore, we got stuck in weekend traffic for another 45 min. Still, we made it home by about 8:30pm.

All in all, a memorable experience, in mostly a good sense.

Hope this is helpful to some of you, at least.

Swaroop

[mooza]

Hi rkrpxz, thanks for the pics ! It's quite a scenic drive, through the ghats.

So looks like the pothole filling jobs are not being taken up in time on the Shiradi Ghat.

As Samurai said sometime ago, the "art" of travelling is back with a bang again