[hamster]

Planning a trip with family to Vaitheeswaran Kovil this weekend. Planned it initially on Dec 1st weekend, but the Cyclone warning made us postpone it.
Now knowing that the long weekend and the (mad) rush associated, considering our upcoming commitments for the next three months, decide to take the bite this weekend.

Was part of another road trip with friends (decided to ride shotgun throughout and never took to the wheel though) to Chidambaram, Seerkazhi and Vaitheeswaran Kovil in first week of August and we took the Chennai-Ulundurpet-Virudhachalam-Chidambaram.
Now this time I will be the only sole driver and planning for an early start by 5 AM on saturday to reach Vaitheeswaran Temple latest by 11.

Not inclined to take the ECR or the thindivanam or the vadalur-sethiathopu stretch and going by the popular choice of taking Ulundurpet Virudhachalam route.
Any alternate route suggestions to reach Vaitheeswaran temple without going through Chidambaram ??

[Innysta]

I don't recommend Ulundurpet - Virudhachalam option. 4 laning road work is in progress between Virudhachalam-Andimadam-Jayamkondam and you've to practically ride on ballast in single lane. Below are 2 options and recommend #1:

1. Chennai-Perambalur-Thiruvaiyaru-Kumbakonam-Vaitheeswarankoil ---- It's a breeze till Thiruvaiyaru and then 2 lane roads (~90% good roads)
2. Virudhachalam-Sethiathoppu-Kumbakonam-Manalmedu-Vaitheeswarankoil ----- Wonderful roads till just before joining Vikravandi-Kumbakonam road. From this junction to Kumbakonam - need to bear diversions, pot holes in old stretch of the roads.

Note: After exiting GST road into Ulundurpet, you need to be mindful of bikes coming from opposite direction suddenly taking right/left turns to go into their village roads. They neither look at opposite vehicle nor back side.

[Innysta]

Originally Posted by ravib

No Narayan. Upto Ariyalur roads are good and can make up good speed, but post that, all the way from Ariyalur-Thiruvaiyaru-Swamimalai-Kumbakonam though the roads are good, average speed is low
So from a time and decent/average speed perspective, better to stick to Sethiathoppur route, despite some short wait in Anaikarai.

Even in Sethiathoppu route, we don't gain much time due to numerous deviations with old patch of muddy roads with potholes. For Kids, Sr. citizens - i always recommend Thiruvaiyaru-KMU option..

Originally Posted by ravib

Ampere,
Given that Vridhachalam to Mangalampettai bypass to Ulundurpet is very good, there is no need to take detour via Veppur to join N45 GST road and drive towards Ulundurpet. The time to cross Vridhachalam will be much lesser than taking the detour for sure.

I always find Veppur route less stressful, same time as going through Mangalmpettai by-pass despite +25km, i bias towards stress-free drive instead of saving few bottles of fuel.

[CArspeed]

Originally Posted by Innysta

I always find Veppur route less stressful, same time as going through Mangalmpettai by-pass despite +25km, i bias towards stress-free drive instead of saving few bottles of fuel.

It isn’t stressful at all as you will find that the newly laid roads are well paved and except for the few hundred meters in Vridachalam it’s even more stress-free than the Veppur route. Do that once before you conclude.

[Yieldway17]

Somewhat tangentially related. The NH-332 Villupuram-Pondy-Cuddalore-Chidambaram-Sirkali-Nagapattinam highway is in good progress everywhere. Just providing a glimpse of what the future travel to coastal delta and beyond will look like in 1-2 years.

Recently went through the very beginning part of this highway which is the Villupuram greenfield bypass towards Pondicherry (KM 0 to 11). This road begins from where the Villupuram bypass on Chennai-Trichy highway ends and an intersection is in advanced stages of construction currently but you can get on to this new bypass from below. Some finishing works are pending but many vehicles have already started using the bypass.

This bypass could be somewhat of an alternative for some people going to Panruti or Cuddalore or Chidambaram from Chennai as it intersects with Vikravandi-Thanjavur highway after Koliyanur. Or more importantly this is a massive help for traffic coming from south and going to Pondicherry as they can skip Villupuram town now.



Some pictures dump from this new bypass in both directions.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Yieldway17

Somewhat tangentially related. The NH-332 Villupuram-Pondy-Cuddalore-Chidambaram-Sirkali-Nagapattinam highway is in good progress everywhere. Just providing a glimpse of what the future travel to coastal delta and beyond will look like in 1-2 years.

Thanks for this update! This is very good to note. I was just thinking if the ECR has a clean Pondicherry bypass (something like a semi-circular peripheral ring road), it would help double up like an additional arterial line to south from Chennai. ECR - Pondicherry bypass - on to NH36 to Panruti and down south. Cuddalore can be avoided. Some how am not sure if there is any thinking on those lines?

[Yieldway17]

Originally Posted by ampere

Thanks for this update! This is very good to note. I was just thinking if the ECR has a clean Pondicherry bypass (something like a semi-circular peripheral ring road), it would help double up like an additional arterial line to south from Chennai. ECR - Pondicherry bypass - on to NH36 to Panruti and down south. Cuddalore can be avoided. Some how am not sure if there is any thinking on those lines?

ECR Pondicherry Bypass will definitely need to be done but I have not seen any concrete news about it.

But it is very unlikely to intersect with NH-36 to connect to Panruti. As per a minor news snippet or tweet I had seen years back, this ECR bypass will likely link to the NH-332 Pondy bypass to Cuudalore which is also already 75-80% completed.

See below map for reference. The red line is the Pondy part of integrated Pondy-Cuddalore bypass which is nearly complete now. Green line was the rough alignment of the proposed bypass on the ECR from North to South-West if I recall correctly. Please note there are zero signs of the green part happening right now - not even land acquisition notices have been issued to my knowledge.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Yieldway17

See below map for reference. The red line is the Pondy part of integrated Pondy-Cuddalore bypass which is nearly complete now. Green line was the rough alignment of the proposed bypass on the ECR from North to South-West if I recall correctly. Please note there are zero signs of the green part happening right now - not even land acquisition notices have been issued to my knowledge.

This would have been perfect ! Would have cleanly given an additional arterial road from Chennai down south. I sincerely hope authorities think about this.

[raghavan]

I traveled from Chennai (Vadapalani) to Pichavaram, Chidambaram, Sirkazhi on 27th December and have taken the following route

Chennai - Tambaram - Tindivanam - Vikravandi - Panruti - Kollukaran Kuttai - Kullanchivadi - Anukkambattu - Join ECR before Alappakkam

Broken roads between Vikravandi - Panruti
Post Panruti, roads are decent to good with very smooth surface for most part of the journey.
Once we join ECR, there are few bad patches especially around flyover construction.

I could cover the Chennai - Pichavaram in about 5 hours with a 30 min break.

Sirkazhi to Bangalore on 29th Dec (with a stop over at Tirukoilur and TV Malai)

Sirkazhi - Chidambaram (By pass) - Bhuvanagiri - Seethiatoppu - Virudhachalam - Mangalampetai (By pass) - Pillur - Kilpalium - Tirukoilur - Tiruvannamalai - Krishnagiri - Hosur - Bangalore

Except for the road construction on ECR till we crossed Chidambaram exit, very smooth SH and NH all the way. The only pain was in crossing Hosur due to a flyover construction.

This thread was super helpful in figuring out the best route before starting from chennai.

[CArspeed]

Originally Posted by raghavan

I traveled from Chennai (Vadapalani) to Pichavaram, Chidambaram, Sirkazhi on 27th December and have taken the following route

Thanks for the update.
Can you give little more details on whether the road expansion work between Cuddalore and Chidambaram and post Chidambaram to Sirkazhi is complete. If not to what extent and where are those incomplete stretches.

[raghavan]

The road expansion work is ongoing. I didn't go through cuddalore, but joined cuddalore - Sirkazhi road just before Alappakkam. The service roads near flyovers are broken with potholes.

If you are not visiting Chidambaram, you can take the bypass 2km before the chidambaram town (you will see a board with Sirkazhi to right) and join the new road.

Road is good in some stretches (new road) till Velakudi bridge and after that it's good old ECR to Sirkazhi town - and 12km before the town you can join the new road again if you are bypassing Sirkazhi.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Yieldway17

ECR Pondicherry Bypass will definitely need to be done but I have not seen any concrete news about it.

I spent more time going through the maps. This whole bypass for NH532 does not make sense at all. At least they should extend it till the 4-lane from Tindivanam. And then see if it can go all the way to ECR to the north of Pondicherry. But seriously it does not make sense if there is not even a vision or a plan for making this happen!

[Yieldway17]

Originally Posted by ampere

I spent more time going through the maps. This whole bypass for NH532 does not make sense at all. At least they should extend it till the 4-lane from Tindivanam. And then see if it can go all the way to ECR to the north of Pondicherry. But seriously it does not make sense if there is not even a vision or a plan for making this happen!

Agreed, unfortunately the Villupuram-Nagai highway is a separate highway and project work from the Mahabalipuram - Pondy ECR highway and project. I believe the former is being done with Bharatmala funds and the later with standard NHAI funds. So there is no integrated planning going on between these projects right now to build a North-South bypass for Pondy.

But eventually for the NHAI officials, it should make sense to have a semi-circular ring road around Pondy connecting all thr highways coming to it. It will happen, but can't say when.

[Yieldway17]

Few observations from my return to Chennai from Peralam today:

- Aduthurai-Mangainallur MDR has been slightly widened.

- Aduthurai - Tiruneelakudi - Tirupananthal has been widened nicely and has a smooth pavement. Unfortunately the smooth tarmac is dug on one side for laying some pipes in many places. But this road is in the best condition ever.

- Anaikarai new bridges on the new bypass seem to be fully completed looking from the old anaicut bridge, I didn't see any gaps in the spans.

- Anaikarai to Sethiyathopu has long stretches of extremely good new 4-lane roads with divided service lanes and couple of finished overpasses. You get interrupted by overpasses under construction in 3-4 places but otherwise it's very smooth sailing.

- Big news : Vellar bridge as part of new Sethiyathoppu bypass is completed and I drove on it today. But an overpass after the river bridge is not ready and you have to do some off-roading (nothing unmanageable except on rainy days) to get on the tarmac again. I drove on the bypass almost end to end and joined the Virudachalam SH thru the service road. Google Maps lost its mind for a few mins though.

[arunramaswamy]

Guys travelling to Kumbakonam over the coming weekend. It will be night trip with my family. What is the best option? I usually take the Mangalampwttai - Andimadam - Jayankondam route from Ulundurpettai. Is there a better option? Google map shows diversion at Vikravandi taking me through Sethiathope and the Grand Anicut route. Please advice. My starting point will be Tambaram.