[lohithrao]

The terrain in the pics are the easy once, thier are some which can challenge but i dont think the cars mentioned would face that a challenge but sure cars with low profiles/lower gc will have time of thier life

Originally Posted by Rajesh K R

For how many kms the road is in this condition? It means that this road is a strict NO-NO for smaller hatches like M-800, Santro, Wagon-R, Alto etc.right ?

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by Rajesh K R

For how many kms the road is in this condition? It means that this road is a strict NO-NO for smaller hatches like M-800, Santro, Wagon-R, Alto etc.right ?

I had been in first week of Jan, the bad stretches were spread across for around 20 KMs. Of this, around 10KMs are really bad. You can do at max 5 - 10KMPH on this stretch.

[sagarpadaki]

Well,the stretch is manageable.Santro,alto can manage it no problem.But the body roll will be high especially in tall boys like wagon R or i10 or santro.

If you are running on low profile tyres and/or 15,16 inch rims then the ride will be way too horrible.

It took us 1.5 hrs to descend the ghats and 2 hours to climb it

[Fauji]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Only when I yell back in Tulu, they used to yield. Hmm, now that Baleno is back in Mangalore.

Time to learn some tulu. Kannada - my mother tongue - may not work i think on this stretch. Need to reach out to my bunt friends for that

[JMaruru]

Today there is a news snippet which says shiradi ghat road (between sakleshpur and gundya) might be taken up on BOT basis as the PCU exceeds 26,000. Hope something happens soon. Fingers crossed.

[mooza]

^^ Yes, saw this news :

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/7438776.cms

Hope the above project gets clearance soon. According to the above report, the present stop-gap repairs are supposedly going on despite pending clearance from Ministry, to minimise inconvenience to the travelling public.

[rajshenoy]

Its been some time since i drove on shiradi... just came back from udupi via bus. journey was very comfortable and barring few km of shiradi(should have lasted about 30 mins or so) road seemed very comfortable(to sleep)

Also i reached udupi at 6:15 and today morning reached bangalore at 6AM(indira nagar) which to me means that roads are in much better shape than once they were in 2008-2009 time.

[hallik9]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

Its been some time since i drove on shiradi... just came back from udupi via bus. journey was very comfortable and barring few km of shiradi(should have lasted about 30 mins or so) road seemed very comfortable(to sleep)

Also i reached udupi at 6:15 and today morning reached bangalore at 6AM(indira nagar) which to me means that roads are in much better shape than once they were in 2008-2009 time.

Raj,
Did you travel with KSRTC or a different one?
What was the total travel time?

[santhoshs]

Hi

Yesterday came back from round trip Blore-Kukke-Dharmasthala-Blore. Took same route for two-ways "Shirdi Ghat". Most of the patches have been repaired. About 10kms is bad, frankly telling there is no road .

I liked the stretch between Gundya - Dharmasthala, recently tarred (may be a week old).

I took my NHC, i think this vehicle has the lowest GC of all the vehicles. could mange those patches. As someone told earlier, you have to be patient on this stretch (10kms). I could see the Merc, Audi, BMW doing this stretch. Overall nice drive.

[cool_dube]

Guys - FYI. Just saw on a news channel that an oil tanker has toppled and caught fire somewhere between Uppinangadi and Mani on NH48. This has disrupted traffic.

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by hallik9

Raj,
Did you travel with KSRTC or a different one?
What was the total travel time?

This was Durgamba and driver was sane too.

Does the time matter ? it would have been totally different if i were driving and i would have obviously taken much shorter route.

Anyways, travel time of about 9.5hrs(bangalore-udupi via mangalore) including all the stops and city driving(unlike KSRTC bus which goes from bus stand to bus stand)

So i was only mentioning the time as a measure to justify that the roads have definitely improved alot(excusing few kms of shiradi) and not sure if people have to try alternative routes.

[cool_dube]

Some R&D on the various options for Bangalore - Kundapura revealed that although option 1 is shorter (distance wise) than option 2, it will take longer time due to more ghat driving involved.

Option 1: Bangalore - Hassan - C'magalur - Aldur - Jayapura - Sringeri - Agumbe - Haladi - Kundapura [449 kms]

Option 2: Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Uppinangadi - Karkala - Udupi - Kundapura [468 kms]

Enclosing Google (terrain) maps snippets for better visualization! Any thoughts? Am I missing anything here?

[lohithrao]

From Gundya till uppinagadi road has been relayed, i guess they will do the rest of the part too. so what time you loose at shiradi you can make it up once you descend and also post 7pm the local population vanishes infact i dint even find a car but the head lights need to be good...

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Option 1: Bangalore - Hassan - C'magalur - Aldur - Jayapura - Sringeri - Agumbe - Haladi - Kundapura [449 kms]

Boss, you are doing too much analysis. I have traveled the above route twice since Sunday. Once in the Jeep and yesterday in the brand new i10 Sportz auto. In fact, since January I have traveled the CKM route 4 times and Shiragi route only once. That should make you think.

While the CKM route has more ghats, it is very soothing on the mind thanks to the views. Also, there is very little traffic and no heavy trucks to deal with. The Shiradi is the blandest route and has heavy traffic including trucks. Finally, the CKM route hardly has any dust, so you can stop once in a while and take photographs. I never feel like getting out in Shiradi route.

[RaguHolla]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Some R&D on the various options for Bangalore - Kundapura revealed that although option 1 is shorter (distance wise) than option 2, it will take longer time due to more ghat driving involved.

Option 1: Bangalore - Hassan - C'magalur - Aldur - Jayapura - Sringeri - Agumbe - Haladi - Kundapura [449 kms]

Option 2: Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Uppinangadi - Karkala - Udupi - Kundapura [468 kms]

Enclosing Google (terrain) maps snippets for better visualization! Any thoughts? Am I missing anything here?

What google doesn't calculates is state of the road! Did you consider Shiradi state also while calculating the time? What is your requirement?

For e.g. default google maps shows route via Hulikal Ghats as fastest route, but between Basrur & Thirthahalli (~80km) you spend 4 hours as against 1 hour 20 min. However you will save 2 hours if you take Thirthahalli ~ Agumbe road!

Apart from that, you can go to Karkala via Ujire -> Belthangdi. This is route is shorter than going till Uppinangadi, however I am not sure how good road between Ujire and NH48.