[Mr_Bean]

I recently changed companies & have been finding ways to reach office in shorter time.

Home - Annanagar
Office - Near velachery MRTS, Palikaranai road.

Route:
Annanagar Shanthi Colony -> Thiru vi ka park -> Aminjikarai -> Chetput -> College Road -> Greams Road -> Gemini Flyover -> Teynampet Cenotaph Road -> Sardar patel Road -> Velachery main road -> Velachery bypass -> palikaranai road

Total time - 50 minutes

Earlier route through Koyamdebu-> vadapalani->guindy -> velachery took me close to 2.5 hours in the morning :-/

Now my question, is there a better route? :-)

[aargee]

Sry Mr.Bean, the ones you take are the best & smarter ones. All the other routes will only be longer.

Alternatively what you can do is, from Shanthi colony, get into Aminjikarai via parallel road of Anna Adarsh, take the immediate left & that way you can go to Arumbakkam (100 ft road) in almost in 10-15 minutes & from there on its only hell due to Metro rail project.

[getsriram]

Mr. Bean

How about the route from Annanagar - Nelson Manickam Road - Panagal Park - Venkatnarayana Road - Cenatoph road (directly)

Are you avoiding this route because of traffic in Nelson manickam road (i am not aware of morning traffic in this road). But in terms of Kms I think it will be shorter than your route.

[jeevmenon]

Same as getsriram but from Panagal park, take S.Usman road, CIT Nagar 1st main, Saidai, Taluk Office Road, Velachery Main road. This is the usual route I take on weekends from my relative's house in Anna Nagar to Velachery. 17 km or so.

[silversteed]

@getsriram: Nelson Manickam road is one of the busiest roads in Chennai. Better to avoid it unless it's after 11pm and before 7am. Sometimes, a few extra KMs can reduce your travel time drastically

[getsriram]

Yes..Jeevmenon is right. I read the velachery bye pass road as the one connecting OMR to velachery taramani link road. Sorry about that..

[callvvijay]

I usually use a route to travel from Anna Nagar Shanthi Colony to Nelson Manickam Road via Shenoy Nagar and then proceed towards my office. This one is via the Shenoy nagar swimming pool. Since this involves travelling by many lanes and streets, the traffic will be lot less compared to any of the main roads.

From Shanthi Colony, take the road which leads to Shenoy Nagar (I am not sure of the name of this road). This road directly takes you to the one (west) side of St.George school from where you can reach the P.H road. - A small bit (less than 0.5 km) of travelling in the main road with just one signal.

In that signal - in front of St.George's school entrance - take a right turn and go towards Harrington road.

Without going via the subway, take the road above the subway - take a U turn above the subway and take a left turn which takes you to Nelson Manickam road - Choolaimedu High Road junction.

As you would be knowing, go via Loyola college, take the left turn (its the only thing available) on to Sterling road.

Here, do not go towards College Road as it will be congested during the peak hour traffic.
Instead, take the immediate right and then left and go straight on Tank Bund road which will lead you to the backside of Valluvar kottam (Signal No: 2) and you can reach the Valluvar Kottam signal (Signal No: 3).

Take the road opposite to the Valluvar Kottam High road - Thirumalai Pillai Road. Go straight until you hit the signal (Signal No: 4).

Take the opposite road, Dr.Nair Raod and you will hit the Pondy Bazaar road from where you can reach Mount Road.

This looks to be a bit clumsy with lots of turns - but believe me, taking the Shenoy nagar road will help you a lot. As I have pointed out above, you will have to cross just 4 signals until you reach Teynampet signal saving you a good amount of time.

PM me if you need any assistance in taking this route.

[pypkmsrikanth]

@ Mr. Bean have you ever tried taking this route.

4th Ave to Anna Salai Rd/Mt Rd - Google Maps

[jeevmenon]

I have another route: When you exit from Shanti colony via the Arch take right, go towards Poonamallee till you see the grade separator, now use the Chennai-Bypass road till Tambaram, then go towards Chromepet/Pallavaram and in between these two take the SH109 to Kamakshi hospital, take left to Velachery. 50 km drive - No Kathipara/No T.Nagar/No Mount Road. Enjoy. Did this a couple of times over the last weekend. Had I been in Coimbatore I would have reached Palakkad

And you can cut this 50 km by 10 km, if you can take an exit at Tiruneermalai. I got a climb on to the bye-pass from here yesterday (thanks to Gansan for telling me exactly this Tiruneermalai road and pypmsrikanth for telling me that there is an entry into the byepass from here), though I am not sure if an exit into Tiruneermalai is possible.

[callvvijay]

@ srikanth: thats the exact thing I was talking about, only thing is that you are using the kodambakkam high road to reach Gemini whereas I talked about using the Thirumalai Pillai Road and Dr.Nair road to reach Mount Road.

@Mr.Bean, try out this route once and you will, for sure, save a lot of time.

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

I have another route: When you exit from Shanti colony via the Arch take right, go towards Poonamallee till you see the grade separator, now use the Chennai-Bypass road till Tambaram, then go towards Chromepet/Pallavaram and in between these two take the SH109 to Kamakshi hospital, take left to Velachery. 50 km drive - No Kathipara/No T.Nagar/No Mount Road. Enjoy. Did this a couple of times over the last weekend. Had I been in Coimbatore I would have reached Palakkad

Actually from Shanti Colony you can join Poonamalee High Road without going through Anna Arch, would save you atleast 10 minutes of time. It joins near Foodworld on Ponamalee High Road, and starts close to the Kovai Pazhamudir Nilayam on Shanti Colony Rd.

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

And you can cut this 50 km by 10 km, if you can take an exit at Tiruneermalai. I got a climb on to the bye-pass from here yesterday (thanks to Gansan for telling me exactly this Tiruneermalai road and pypmsrikanth for telling me that there is an entry into the byepass from here), though I am not sure if an exit into Tiruneermalai is possible.

You can certainly exit the byepass as well by taking a U turn a couple of kms down the road and and exiting at the same point you had entered.

@ Vijay: You don't need to go via Thirumalai Pillai Road & Nair Road. All you have to do is take a left at Valluvar Kottam and the immediate right (opp to Bala cabs) continue on Habibullah road, cross G N Chetty Road and take the left onto Boag road. Once you reach The Residency towers Jn. a left would take you to Alayamman Koil Jn. though that signal might be chaotic.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

I have another route: When you exit from Shanti colony via the Arch take right, go towards Poonamallee till you see the grade separator

If you can go till Poonamalee and enter the road to Kandan Chavady (or is it Kumanan chavady) you will pass Mangadu, Kundrathur and enter GST road near Pallavaram police station. From here the Radial road is just a stone's throw away. This should be even shorter, but I am not sure of the road conditions now.

[callvvijay]

Originally Posted by pypkmsrikanth

@ Vijay: You don't need to go via Thirumalai Pillai Road & Nair Road. All you have to do is take a left at Valluvar Kottam and the immediate right (opp to Bala cabs) continue on Habibullah road, cross G N Chetty Road and take the left onto Boag road. Once you reach The Residency towers Jn. a left would take you to Alayamman Koil Jn. though that signal might be chaotic.

Yep.. Thats an easier option!!

[jeevmenon]

Gansan: That would set you back by 5-6 km additional I think, via Mangadu/Kundrathur/Pammal. And its all crowded. Byepass is cool to quickly reach.

[pypkmsrikanth]

For a change let me list out a nice experience which set up the morning today for me. I need to cross the MTH Road near Lucas while I am on my way out to office. During rainy days the traffic gets clogged all the way from Korattur Jn. to the Lucas flyover, with almost all vehicles on the MTH Rd. not minding moving an inch forward and wait knowing fully well the traffic is not moving forward, rather than allow the vehicles wanting to cross MTH Road on our way out a typical "Dog in the Manger" attitude.

Today was no different except an MTC Bus driver decided not only to stop and allow us to cross the road but showed his hand for the vehicles next to him to stop as well. Good drivers do exist. From my side I showed him a wave of appreciation am sure he deserved more than that.