[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by Chillout

Benny

We are also planning to goto Munnar from Chennai on April 4th evening 4:00 pm stay at Srirangam and next day leave to Munnar.

You had suggested Dindigual - Udumalpet - Munnar which is 50 kms more than Dindugal - Theni - Bodi - Munnar.

Any reason for this. I have traveled via Theni to Thekaddy last August and the roads were excellent. Not sure how Theni to Munnar is though.

Udumalaipet-Munnar road is in a bad shape now.

Theni-Munnar road is good and the best choice of routes.

[GreaseMonk]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Udumalaipet-Munnar road is in a bad shape now.

Theni-Munnar road is good and the best choice of routes.

Hi hvkumar, May I ask when you received this update\travelled this road last? I'm also heading to Munnar from chennai on the 6th by bike and heard that the Udumalaipet route was much more scenic and the climb more entertaining compared to the Bodi-Theni route.

Originally Posted by Chillout

We are also planning to goto Munnar from Chennai on April 4th evening 4:00 pm stay at Srirangam and next day leave to Munnar.

Chillout, may I ask where you are staying in Srirangam? I am looking for cheap accomodations for the night around Trichy, but not too far from the highway\bypass.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by GreaseMonk

Hi hvkumar, May I ask when you received this update\travelled this road last? I'm also heading to Munnar from chennai on the 6th by bike and heard that the Udumalaipet route was much more scenic and the climb more entertaining compared to the Bodi-Theni route.

This update is from a Bullet biker who did it it 10 days ago. He found it extremely difficult to drive this section from TN-KL border till 10 kms short of Munnar.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

This update is from a Bullet biker who did it it 10 days ago. He found it extremely difficult to drive this section from TN-KL border till 10 kms short of Munnar.

So looks like even the Udumalpet section has deteriorated significantly.
With the Theni being narrow, need to be watching in the last legs of travel to Munnar.

[skdking]

Originally Posted by ampere

So looks like even the Udumalpet section has deteriorated significantly.
With the Theni being narrow, need to be watching in the last legs of travel to Munnar.

The road via Udumalpet is definitely better than the road via Theni.

[Chillout]

Chillout, may I ask where you are staying in Srirangam? I am looking for cheap accomodations for the night around Trichy, but not too far from the highway\bypass.[/quote]

Due to a personal problem I had to cancel my trip, I was planning to stay in one of the choultry near the Srirangam temple. There are several of them and provide decent accommodation. The prices range from 500 to 1000.

[misguidedmisile]

Hi Folks,

I just returned from Munnar last night. Here's an update on the Road conditions.
Chennai-Munnar:
Left my home at 3.15AM and crossed Trichy at 8AM. Roads are top class. Missed the turn off for Dindigul and had to back track about 10kms. Again, the Trichy-Dindigul stretch is fabulous. The stretch between Dindigul and Theni is a little slow as road widening work is in progress. Theni-Bodi-Munnar (Club Mahindra) is again a perfect road. No problems anywhere. Reached the resort at Chinnakanal by 12.45PM. Had a 15minute breakfast halt at Batlagundu. Very pleased with the overall road condition.

Munnar-Chennai:
Took the same route back. Left Club mahindra at 10AM and reached home at 9PM. Took 2 half hours stops for food- one at Theni (Hotel western Gatz) and the other at the Adyar Ananda Bhavan, which is about 100kms after crossing Trichy town. Encountered heavy evening traffic near Guduvancheri & Tambaram, and then the entire Mount road with all it's diversions!

Cheers!
Varun

[shinthray]

Originally Posted by misguidedmisile

Hi Folks,

I just returned from Munnar last night. Here's an update on the Road conditions.
Chennai-Munnar:
Left my home at 3.15AM and crossed Trichy at 8AM. Roads are top class. Missed the turn off for Dindigul and had to back track about 10kms. Again, the Trichy-Dindigul stretch is fabulous. The stretch between Dindigul and Theni is a little slow as road widening work is in progress. Theni-Bodi-Munnar (Club Mahindra) is again a perfect road. No problems anywhere. Reached the resort at Chinnakanal by 12.45PM. Had a 15minute breakfast halt at Batlagundu. Very pleased with the overall road condition.

Munnar-Chennai:
Took the same route back. Left Club mahindra at 10AM and reached home at 9PM. Took 2 half hours stops for food- one at Theni (Hotel western Gatz) and the other at the Adyar Ananda Bhavan, which is about 100kms after crossing Trichy town. Encountered heavy evening traffic near Guduvancheri & Tambaram, and then the entire Mount road with all it's diversions!

Cheers!
Varun

Thanks a lot for the quick update Varun. Hope you had a good holiday. I got the same information from Club Mahindra travel desk. In another thread, NAK has also updated that the route via Udumalaipet is full of potholes and 4 checkposts. So based on all the updates its confirmed for me that it would be Dindigul - Theni - Bodi route. Appreciate all the updates, suggestions given by BHPians to my queries.

[GreaseMonk]

+1 to misguidedmissile's post.
On the way back I took a wrong turn at dindigul and ended up in Karur. The road from Karur to Trichy is terrible. I believe its about 80 km and took around 3 hours to complete on bike.

If the same happens to you, please either turn back to Dindigul or head on to Salem and take the highway to Chennai.

[rameshnanda]

The Karur-Trichy should be thoroughly avoided. The best way to reach Chennai from Karur currently is, Karur-Namakkal-Rasipuram-Attur-Kallakurichi-Ulundurpet-Villupuram-Chennai.

Here you get all 4 Lane except for the Rasipuram-Attur, which is around 50 kms.

But for Chennai-Munnar, if I were to take Bodi route, I would prefer Chennai-Madurai-Theni-Bodi-Munnar.

[GreaseMonk]

Yes, you can also avoid the bad Dindigul-Theni route by going through Madurai (Dindigul-Madurai-Theni). Did this on the way there. It's a little longer, but good roads throughout.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by GreaseMonk

Yes, you can also avoid the bad Dindigul-Theni route by going through Madurai (Dindigul-Madurai-Theni). Did this on the way there. It's a little longer, but good roads throughout.

Though you get good roads, I think the bigger problem, you loose good time cross Madurai.
Some how the southern part of the city has good by-passes, but not the North-Eastern side.

For example 45B (Trichy Entry) to NH7 (Karur exit).

Because of these problems, you get really trapped while crossing Madurai.
Which is the best option as of today? Thirumangalam only?

[skdking]

Originally Posted by ampere

...

Because of these problems, you get really trapped while crossing Madurai.
Which is the best option as of today? Thirumangalam only?

Yup. Thirumangalam appears to be it.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by GreaseMonk

Yes, you can also avoid the bad Dindigul-Theni route by going through Madurai (Dindigul-Madurai-Theni).

Originally Posted by ampere

Though you get good roads, I think the bigger problem, you loose good time cross Madurai.

amp, what GreaseMonk mentioned is to use the Trichy-Dindigul-Madurai than the Trichy-Melur-Madurai route. If you take the Dindigul route, you won't lose time in Madurai (taking the NH7 bypass at Samayanallur and exiting on NH49), but in Trichy rather (which is easier and predictable compared to Madurai bypass).

I lost an hour myself during my Munnar trip last May going through the Melur route.

Infact it is a better idea to go via Dindigul from Madras to get destinations on West, South Madurai destination and further south TN. I've experimented this in May that you can effortlessly cross Madurai by doing not more than 10-15 km extra and paying 60 Rs lesser on toll, not to forget saving some heart stopping moments on the Madurai bypass. The best timing on Madurai bypass I've taken is 20 min, dead of the night at 330am-355am on the same trip onward.

[hypermiler]

Any updates on the route this year? I am planning for a trip from Chennai to Munnar via Tiruchy.