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This will be a challenge as Ramanagar and Mandya are no longer small towns, and finding a place for a clean bypass will be difficult. In fact, Ramanagar, Channapatna & Maddur are so close to each other that there can be one common bypass for these 3 towns. Mandya does not have much space for a bypass close to the existing SH. For people staying in places close to NICE road, I still suggest H.Durga route, a bypass is under construction for H.Durga and it is about 40% complete but good enough to keep you off from the narrow roads. The stretch between H.Durga and Maddur is about 80% complete and only small patches of work pending. The road widening is in progress at few curves on the road between Magadi and H.Durga but progress has been slow. I have attached a map of bypass road at H.Durga, follow the yellow lanes. There is a muddy road to start with, then a clean road for a small stretch and again muddy road till you join the SH shown in white color. This is doable even in a Sedan. The reason why I promote this road is it connects you to Maddur, Mandya, Srirangapatna and also helps me to avoid tolls while traveling towards Hassan.

This was the concern I had. Simply because till now this is a SH. So it can be changed according the requirements. The moment it becomes a National highway and that a 4/6 lanes, some standards of entry/exits and bypass will need to come into play. And that does seem like possible in this corridor.


Been aware of the famous SH85! (Actually if you see its the single road leading into Bisle Ghat!)

Yes there are multiple options.

Magadi road - Magadi - Savandurga - Ramnagar
Magadi road - H Durga - Maddur
Magadi road - H Durga - Nagamangala - Pandavpura - SR Patna

Have been on all these stretches a while back. Good to note conditions are improving. But yes its a slow process.

I have started using these alternate roads to keep my mouth under control and enjoy driving :). I had done a trip to Kukke through this route via Bisile ghat with my Rapid in 2014.
There is one more road under construction, the Maddur-Koppa stretch apart from Maddur-Kunigal and Mandya-Koudle.

When I visited Basaralu, I took the Nagamangala - Mandya road it was a very good 2L at least upto Basaralu. Hardly any traffic on the road though I did see a couple of red board buses headed towards Mandya.

Anyone with a recent Sunday drive experience for Bangalore-Mysore-Bangalore on the regular SH17/NH275 route ?
On a regular Sunday (not a holiday or long weekend), what time can one start from Bangalore to reach Mysore by 10-10:30am ?

And, for the return journey starting latest by 4pm what route would you suggest ?

*Kanakapura road has some widening work in progress so planning to avoid that route.

A 6.30 AM start from NICE - Mysore road junction will ensure you comfortably reach Mysore by 9.30 - 10 AM, assuming you drive non-stop. Traffic thins down marginally in the Maddur-Mysore stretch, except for Mandya town.

On the return, I'd suggest you to avoid Kanakpura road even after the road work is complete, as there are lot of small towns and villages you pass through in that route.

The longer alternatives to avoid the madness on the return would be,

1. Mysore - KR Nagar - KR pete - Nagamangla - Bellur cross - Nelamangla - Bangalore.

2. Mysore - Pandavapura - Nagamangla - Bellur cross - Nelamangla - Bangalore.

Both are longer routes compared to the default route and both will take you about 3.5 hours of travel time, albeit with some peace!

I suggest try and make a start from Mysore before 3 PM if you take the default NH, so that you reach Bangalore before 6.30.

Last 3-4 years, I've always tried to avoid Bangalore-Mysore & return via NH275 (erstwhile SH17), when going to places like Ooty, Calicut, etc but this time it was a larger group in 2 vehicles so decided to take the regular route and turned out to be a not-so-bad experience in the end :)

An update from the drive:
-Onward -> Started at 6:15am from Indiranagar and stopped at Kadambam near Channapatna at 7:45am for breakfast. The place is nowhere close to the name it had earned for itself several years ago and the food was just average. Started around 8:20 from there and reached Mysore around 9:30am. Traffic was manageable all the way, most slow moving sections were between Nayandahalli and Kengeri mainly due to Metro Rail work.
-Return -> We started around 4:45pm and again decided to take a gamble with Mysore Road owing mainly to better facilities and the 4 lane. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as holiday weekends and we reached NICE road junction around 7:15pm. Traffic started slowing down after Bidadi. Decided to take NICE Road and it turned out to be a good decision. Reached home via Hosur Road-Koramangala-Indiranagar and the slowest section was in fact 100 ft Road Indiranagar :Frustrati Reached home at 8:15pm

Hello fellow BHPians,
I'm traveling to Somnathpur temple tomorrow. Planning to leave by 630 or 7 from Arekere.

How is Kanakapura road and are there any places to eat on the way?

Thanks in Advance.

We drove to Polachi via Kanakapura and Sathy a month before.

The road conditions are good through out (we deviated from Kollegal)except the Work-in-Progress sections while passing few towns before Kanakapura.

When heading south, you will be on the makeshift part of the tarmac and hence it will offer bit of rough ride till you pass these, else all good.

Since you will travel under sunlight, you can also spot the speedbreakers quite easily which is a regular occurrence on this road.

For breakfast, I may not be able to suggest any since we had started at 4am and had our breakfast at Sathyamangalam. Have heard of this place called "Vasu Hotel" which serves excellent dosas at Kanakapura itself but I am not sure whether it will be suitable for both breakfast as well as Bio breaks when with family.

I am huge Dosa fan and wont miss a chance to get a parcel at Vasu hotel, they make amazing dosa and even mixture and other short eats are great, having said that, it is not a place a bio break for sure.

Speedbreakers ? Have some new ones come up recently ? :Shockked: Can't recall having seen any on the highway when I travelled last which was about 3-4 weeks ago (except for the ones on either side of the narrow Cauvery bridge at Shivanasamudra and a couple of them on the entry/exit of Kanakapura town)

No new ones from my knowledge but those which exist are still happily and proudly there, including the one near that Bridge which is indeed nasty.

Vasu Hotel is a great place for Idly, Vada, Dosas :) That said, I'm not sure if the place even has a rest room!

About 100 meters or so ahead of Vasu, you will see Srinivas Sagar on the left, near the circle where NH209 curves to the right. I've seen posts from some of the sunday morning bikers mention the place on another thread, again not sure about rest rooms there.

:OT
Parag - I'm surprised that there is a place you haven't been to, time to meet up and check it out soon!

Ah, OK, thanks - for a moment your earlier message got me worried !!stupid:

By the way if heading to Chamarajnagar and beyond via Kanakapura, the better/faster option these days is to take SH33 towards Mysore from Malavalli and take the left turn towards Somanathpur / T.Narsipur at Bannur (Santhemala junction) and continuing on to Santhamarahalli from T.Narsipur. Good roads almost all through, and you avoid the traffic in Kollegal and Yelandur towns plus the 4 villages between Kollegal and Yelandur where NH209 is very narrow.

You still do need to cross a narrow bridge across the Cauvery at T.Narsipur (in lieu of the narrow one at Sivanasamudra), but the new bridge being built parallel to the old one there seems almost done and even that bottleneck should get cleared when it opens.

Similarly if going to Gundlupet/Ooty/Wayanad via Kanakapura, SH33 from Malavalli till Mysore ORR and then the Mysore-Nanjangud-Gundlupet road is certainly much faster than going via Kollegal / CR Nagar nowadays after completion of the Mysore ORR section between Bannur Road and Nanjangud road plus the relaying of the Mysore-Nanjangud-Gundlupet sections.

But I'm not how long it is going to stay fast because I can already see Nanjangud town slowly turning into a bottleneck similar to Mandya on SH17 (Real lack of foresight on the part of NHAI, I feel they should have built a bypass for Nanjangud since they were anyway building a new bridge there and relaying that highway almost totally). Also the toll gate coming up near Nanjangud might eventually turn into a stress point as well in the not too distant future.

Driving back after a long weekend in Mysore, I took the Mysore – Bannur – Malavalli – Kanakapura road on a Sunday evening. We were pleasantly surprised to find very good roads, except for some very small patches. Around 12 Kms more than the usual SH-17 route, we made it to home in less than 3 hours. Moreover I could enjoy the entire drive without peak hour traffic and unwanted stops.
If you are driving in day light (as there are no road dividers throughout) and do not need restaurants on your way, you can definitely think of this route!
Here some pictures of the drive: