[kj302]

Fellow travellers,
I am a regular traveller on Bangalore-Kanyamumari section of GQ (on my way to Trivandrum). When I first travelled on this section, back in 2008, the road blowed me over with the asphalting quality, banking, absence of speed breakers, thoughtful bypasses and finish.

But over the last couple of months, i am feeling that the quality has deteriorated. The entire stretch is still practically 100% pothole free, but the road has started to sink at places, especially over bridges, where concrete slabbing ends.

The road is still excellent if one cruises at 120 kmph. But as speed increases (say 150), these undulations will hit you hard and throw you out of the seat (literally). The frequency is more in Madurai-Kanyakumari stretch.

Has anybody noticed it or is it time to change my suspension :-)

KJ

[DrVjy]

I did this stretch from Madurai to Bangalore yesterday (2- Jan- 2011) on my i10 that has done some 18000 km till now. I agree fully with you that the culverts and bridges are bad at speeds of 120+ km/hr. I got a rude shock at one bridge (around Karur, I guess) where the car heaved quite noticeably after running over a sunken patch. Curse the NH guys for this. By the way, these are all toll roads so one can likely make a complaint and get the toll collectors to act.

[mykal shoemaker]

Agree with you.
I too use the same stretch upto Madurai frequently.

Almost all fly overs have this issue.Unless they do some maintenance work with the heavy tolls they collect, these roads will come back to our normal road conditions.

[kj302]

I have put a complaint on this in NHAI site. If anybody is travelling in this stretch please note the KM where the road has sunk in. We will give this info to NHAI. Also please note the contractor. We will try to raise this directly to them.

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by kj302

I have put a complaint on this in NHAI site. If anybody is travelling in this stretch please note the KM where the road has sunk in. We will give this info to NHAI. Also please note the contractor. We will try to raise this directly to them.

I think it was L&T, right?

And recently [7-8 months back] they have raised the Toll charges too. [Thoppur raised from 48 to 66 now]

In the Bangy - Chennai section, I have not seen any increase in the toll charges for the past 4 years. Yup, there were 3 additional Tolls though now

Are these Toll to exist till we die? Or its just for the contractors to get back the money and hand over to Govt, inturn to provide a better infrastructures?

[anujmishra]

Originally Posted by mjothi

I think it was L&T, right?

And recently [7-8 months back] they have raised the Toll charges too. [Thoppur raised from 48 to 66 now]

In the Bangy - Chennai section, I have not seen any increase in the toll charges for the past 4 years. Yup, there were 3 additional Tolls though now

Are these Toll to exist till we die? Or its just for the contractors to get back the money and hand over to Govt, inturn to provide a better infrastructures?

On Monday early morning 2:00 AM I returned from Rameshwaram. I fully agree with the bridges section but more or less same type of bridges available in most of Indian Highways. Potentially design defects.

Near Madurai there is incomplete Flyover due to which you have to take worst diversion. Also it is not speed breaker free. Have you passed through Thoppur Section? Worst kind of speed breakers are there which shake your entire body along with car.

And yes, I paid whopping 729.00 Rupees of Toll in Bangalore - Rameshwaram - Bangalore journey. This is too much.

[praful]

Originally Posted by kj302

Fellow travellers,
I am a regular traveller on Bangalore-Kanyamumari section of GQ (on my way to Trivandrum).
KJ

Just a small correction, only the Bangalore-Krishnagiri stretch of the Bangalore-Kanyakumari route is actually a part of the GQ.

Rest, the Krishnagiri-Kanyakumari stretch is a part of the NSEW corridor!

[kj302]

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Near Madurai there is incomplete Flyover due to which you have to take worst diversion. Also it is not speed breaker free. Have you passed through Thoppur Section? Worst kind of speed breakers are there which shake your entire body along with car.

AFAIR, Thoppur ghat section was the first segment to be laid in K'giri-kanyakumari section. Yes with bleeding tar and monstrous speed breakers, its a pain, but I tend to ignore it as Thoppur 4 lane was like a mirage in the 2 lane k'giri salem section (even way back in 2004-2005). The soft corner still exists :-)

[sbraj]

The undulations are quite uneven, especially near Karur, Namakkal etc. Whereas near Tirunelveli the bridges have very sharp curves.
But then official speed limit is, I think 100kmph and at this speed, issue is not that pronounced except at one bridge.

[nfsfreak]

i used to travel in B'lore-Namakkal quite frequently and i can clearly feel the sunken ends even @ 80 kmph in my Accent (in most of the bridges at this stretch).
Its scary especially if you maintain good speeds and encounter one such bridge.
yeah... they act as speed brakers in one way!!!