Bharat Rakshak

Did you mean Hosur, since I think Krishnagiri is well within TN. My destination is near Wipro Corporate Office in Sarjapur Road.

Aditya_V wrote:To Learned Gurus here, Planning to drive from Chennai to Bangalore, through Krishnagiri to Hosur, any good places where I can stopover for Food. Good Petrol Bunks to fill up before entering Karnataka.

Saar. if Krishnagiri is too far out from Chennai, I have a couple of other options (quite SDRE, nothing chi-chi) to offer, which would not require any detours/drives into towns:
- At Ambur near Vellore, there is a restaurant called 'Deepam', on your left as you drive towards BLR, just a few 100 mts or so before a toll gate - have seen quite a few KSRTC Airavata (Volvo) services and TNSTC/SETC buses stopping here as well at times
- Just before Vaniyambadi, there is a tiny place called Chola's, on the right side (across the street, 2-3mts away from a break in the median)

Both places are nothing to write home about, but if all you want is to grab a quick (veg) bite to eat and restrooms to get freshened up, these will do I suppose. They certainly aren't at the level of A2B/McD kind of places near K'giri.

For topping up, try 5 Star Fuels at Hosur (again on the 'other' side as you drive towards BLR, just before you enter Hosur 'town' on the highway) - they are pretty big and accept all sorts of credit cards as well. Else you have a couple of smaller bunks on the left soon after you cross the flyover that takes you past the Hosur bus stand.

Hope this helps.

Manish. Thanks a lot

Aditya_V wrote:Did you mean Hosur, since I think Krishnagiri is well within TN. My destination is near Wipro Corporate Office in Sarjapur Road.

Oh, in that case, you can take the road directly from Hosur to Sarjapur, instead of fighting your way through the Hosur traffic to the elevated road and then getting off at Silk Board and then fighting your way through god awful traffic towards Sarjapur.

No tolls, must be shorter (Hyp vs A+B of right angle) avoids traffic and takes you straight. It is the back roads though, so you wont be whizzing at high speed, but should be pretty decent roads. Look it up in Google Maps or some such thing.

Tank up in Hosur. There are multiple HP /IOC /BP stations between Krishnagiri and just before Hosur (a place called Shoolagiri) on the same side of the road on the left if you are driving, look for the big full service ones which take credit cards etc (HP ones with flower logo things, IOC with the Credit Card mentioned, BP always is pretty big). Tank up there before entering, you save what 3 to 4 rupees per liter.

Food options in Chennai side are that eating joint at that left at the place where the road forks off towards Tirupati on the right from NH4, and just after Sriperumbudur near the Reliance gas station .. After that pretty much detours in to cities (there is a Saravana Bhavan in Vellore, but you get in and out it is a 45 min thing + eating time) and really nothing until you go past Krishnagiri and near Hosur.

Oh, if you want to be adventerous and come via the Chittoor /Bangarpet road, there is a Woody's outside Bangarpet. Great place to stop and eat and then come via ORR to Sarjapur JN and go to Wipro Corp office. This route will work fine as well..

Vina Thanks, was considering NH-7 ORR, but people said take the Hosur Road it is easier. Dont mind the 45 mins in Vellore. Will give the Tyres rest after 135K driving from Chennai.

vina wrote:

Aditya_V wrote: Oh, if you want to be adventerous and come via the Chittoor /Bangarpet road, there is a Woody's outside Bangarpet. Great place to stop and eat and then come via ORR to Sarjapur JN and go to Wipro Corp office. This route will work fine as well..

vina saar, the Chittoor route was/is being upgraded/four-laned, not advisable to take that route right now I guess, although I haven't taken it in the last couple of months or so.

er since you are coming to wipro corporate office on sarjapur road, somewhere after hosur and before you reach bommasandra at a place called Attibele, a SH-35 forks off to the right .... it ends up in sarjapur police station circle. from there turn left onto sarjapur road and you will reach wipro from the opposite side. traffic is thin and road is smooth but the road being undivided and a bit lonely wouldnt advise it after dark unless you have some muscular lads with you.

there is also a humongous speed bump on sarjapur road (two really but u can drive around one on shoulder) where it crosses a railway line. unless you have a short chassis car like santro and travelling without rear seat passengers, I dont think there's any way on earth to avoid scraping bottom on that one

you can see SH35 clearly in google maps.

this route will fully avoid the blr traffic.

Govt approves 6 road proposals worth Rs 9,774 cr

link

Public Private Partnership Approval Committee (PPPAC), chaired by Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, had granted approval to the six proposals of the ministry of road transport and highways spread across five states, an official statement said.

The projects approved, include six laning of Kishangarh Udaipur Ahmedabad [ Images ] section of NH 79A, NH 79, NH 76 and NH 8 in Rajasthan [ Images ] and Gujarat worth Rs 5,387.30 crore (Rs 53.87 billion).

Also four laning of Lucknow-Sultanpur section of NH 56 in Uttar Pradesh [ Images ] worth Rs 1,013 crore (Rs 10.13 billion) and four laning of Angul-Sambalpur section of NH 42 in Orissa for Rs 1,220.32 crore (Rs 12.20 billion).

The other projects are two/four laning of Birmitrapur to Barkote section in Orissa (Rs 778.15 crore), four laning with paved shoulder of Bhopal to Biaora section in Madhya Pradesh [ Images ] (Rs 704.26 crore) and four laning of Rewa to MP/UP Border of NH 7 (Rs 670.82 crore).

The other projects approved are in Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. All the projects are related to expansion of national highways in the respective states.

The PPPAC has approved 226 projects with an estimated cost of Rs 224,464.51 crore (Rs 2,244.64 billion) since it was formed in 2006.

The projects include roads in national highways, ports, airports, housing, tourism infrastructure, Railways and sports stadia.

Singha wrote:er since you are coming to wipro corporate office on sarjapur road, somewhere after hosur and before you reach bommasandra at a place called Attibele, a SH-35 forks off to the right .... it ends up in sarjapur police station circle. from there turn left onto sarjapur road and you will reach wipro from the opposite side. traffic is thin and road is smooth but the road being undivided and a bit lonely wouldnt advise it after dark unless you have some muscular lads with you.

there is also a humongous speed bump on sarjapur road (two really but u can drive around one on shoulder) where it crosses a railway line. unless you have a short chassis car like santro and travelling without rear seat passengers, I dont think there's any way on earth to avoid scraping bottom on that one

you can see SH35 clearly in google maps.

this route will fully avoid the blr traffic.

Thats exactly what I did, only thing had a pretty close encounter with a Bus on a Bridge between Attibele and Sarapur.

Gaurav_S wrote:Govt approves 6 road proposals worth Rs 9,774 cr

link

Public Private Partnership Approval Committee (PPPAC), chaired by Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, had granted approval to the six proposals of the ministry of road transport and highways spread across five states, an official statement said.

The projects approved, include six laning of Kishangarh Udaipur Ahmedabad [ Images ] section of NH 79A, NH 79, NH 76 and NH 8 in Rajasthan [ Images ] and Gujarat worth Rs 5,387.30 crore (Rs 53.87 billion).

Also four laning of Lucknow-Sultanpur section of NH 56 in Uttar Pradesh [ Images ] worth Rs 1,013 crore (Rs 10.13 billion) and four laning of Angul-Sambalpur section of NH 42 in Orissa for Rs 1,220.32 crore (Rs 12.20 billion).

The other projects are two/four laning of Birmitrapur to Barkote section in Orissa (Rs 778.15 crore), four laning with paved shoulder of Bhopal to Biaora section in Madhya Pradesh [ Images ] (Rs 704.26 crore) and four laning of Rewa to MP/UP Border of NH 7 (Rs 670.82 crore).

The other projects approved are in Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. All the projects are related to expansion of national highways in the respective states.

The PPPAC has approved 226 projects with an estimated cost of Rs 224,464.51 crore (Rs 2,244.64 billion) since it was formed in 2006.

The projects include roads in national highways, ports, airports, housing, tourism infrastructure, Railways and sports stadia.

Pwhat no project for TN, KN or AP.

Aditya_V wrote:

Pwhat no project for TN, KN or AP.

whats that supposed to mean?

Most of the southern states have already completed the four laning of the National Highways, but most of these states are just getting there.

Delhi-Jaipur is 4 laned, Jaipur Kishangarh is already an expressway, so six-laning of Udaipur-Ahmedabad should definitely improve Delhi Mumbai connectivity as Ahmd-Mumbai connectivity is decent already.

WIsh the Chennai Kancheepuram and Chennai- Chengalpattu Stretch is also 6 laned, these are getting jammed with traffic.

Two lanes are to be added to the Mumbai-Pune expressway to make it a 8-lane roadway from the 6-lanes today. Some of the parts which have steep gradient is to be rebuilt to allow for higher speeds.

The original project cost 1600cr in 2001'ish, but this new one is estimated to cost 4000cr.

8 lanes, longest road tunnels soon on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

^^This money would have been better utilized for four-laning the death trap that is currently the Mumbai-Goa highway (NH 17). I've travelled the NH-17 numerous times, and the traffic on this route always used to be high. But with the rapid increase in both private and commercial vehicles in recent times, the problem has reached epic proportions. The number of people killed in accidents (especially head-on collisions) on this road is staggering. And nobody seems to be bothered about it.

nachiket wrote:This money would have been better utilized for four-laning the death trap that is currently the Mumbai-Goa highway (NH 17).

NH 17 seems to be a really narrow highway all the way to Edappalli Jn. in Kochi, Kerala. I feel this would be a neglected highway. In monsoons in many parts of Northern Kerala (and Southern Karnataka) this NH is a mess.

It is surprising this NH is getting ignored, despite a new naval base and two important port that it connects. It can be as beautiful in parts as any coastal highway with changes in alignment too. Considering the long stretch that makes the western ghats covering the four states, this roadway is as important as the east coast one that is part of the golden quadrilateral.

nachiket wrote:^^This money would have been better utilized for four-laning the death trap that is currently the Mumbai-Goa highway (NH 17).

I heard Konkan is getting a coastal freeway with feeders connecting to Mumbai and Pune because NH17 is too messy to modernise. NH17 is supposed to die a natural death from what I was told.

Added later: This article says the state government is going to 4-lane NH-17 as well.

Maharashtra announces 5000cr package for Konkan

Vera, that coastal highway idea has been around for a while. The news doing the rounds was that many pawarfool people had purchased land adjacent to the proposed route to create hotels and resorts, so the NH-17 widening became "messy" and the "need" for coastal highway was felt.

Parts of NH-17 4 lane program started 3 years ago - in my opinion 25 years a bit too late after thousands of deaths and injuries. I would love to see what our beloved secular government would do about Bhatkal though. If they have to make a 4 lane, there are plenty of mosques and mullahghars that needs to be demolished.

I can see how NH-17 would be very expensive to upgrade seeing all the mountainous terrain the existing road passes through. Plus the sentiment I heard was that upgrading NH-17 parts in MH will benefit people from other states, while building the coastal road will benefit Maharashtra more.

Ambar wrote:I would love to see what our beloved secular government would do about Bhatkal though. If they have to make a 4 lane, there are plenty of mosques and mullahghars that needs to be demolished.

They'll just build a bypass i guess. Or just leave that part as is, a bottleneck.

Marten wrote:Vayalar-Thrissur is just horrible. Do you know if the state govt. plans to allow completion of the 4-laning there?

Yes, it is as horrible as the Malgudi-Trichur route.

For those who want to avoid the trichur-palakkad section of NH-47 there is an alternate 1+1 lane decent road, long sections built to US standard except when entering towns alongside the route. Take to Trichur-Shornur-Ottapalam-Lakkidi-Palakkad. Very nice drive.

I thought Malgudi was a creation of RK NArayan does it really exist ?

>>For those who want to avoid the trichur-palakkad section of NH-47 there is an alternate 1+1 lane decent road, long sections built to US standard except when entering towns alongside the route. Take to Trichur-Shornur-Ottapalam-Lakkidi-Palakkad. Very nice drive.

Thanks Bade, very useful bit of info that...

I took that on advice of our driver. Well he insisted like drivers do in Kerala, with a how would a non-resident like me know, look. I agreed with hesitation as it adds to the extra miles, but is the same time wise and better road quality. This was last year, and road felt like a rubberized one so should hold for some more years. It is similar in quality to the one from Chalakudy to the Athirapilly Falls, which used to be a hell-hole of a road to drive, till it was rubberized.

Suryag, it was in jest. Malgudi does not exist in reality. Vayalar exists but not in Palakkad district, way south in Alapuzha.

You still connect to NH47 from Palakkad and have to go through Walayar, but the worse part of the NH-47 stretch is actually trichur-palakkad one.

It is the palakkad-ponnani rd SH-23 that I was referring to.

Have they finished work on NH-47 on the TN side with new flyovers at town junctions and the lane widening. All the diversions from that if it is ongoing work would make the drive difficult. After Salem it was fine all the way to Blr.

OTOH, cheap flights are not available anymore looks like.

Looks like Kerala is fixing NH47 rain damages, minister intervened after newspaper articles etc. We are also planning to to driver BLR <<>> Trichur in Aug. Will explore Shornur route as well

Yes, the injineer told the minister that work can't happen till rains stop. Minister insisted it start right away. What is going to happen is, the potholes will be filled with soil, and the road will become one bigg mudpuddle.

You can't win!

Ambar wrote:Parts of NH-17 4 lane program started 3 years ago - in my opinion 25 years a bit too late after thousands of deaths and injuries. I would love to see what our beloved secular government would do about Bhatkal though. If they have to make a 4 lane, there are plenty of mosques and mullahghars that needs to be demolished.

Out of the 300-odd km of NH-17 (now called NH-66 after the recent renaming of highways) within Karnataka, 100+km starting from Kerala border right up to Kundapur is being 4-laned right now. They started widening the NH-17 stretch surrounding Mangalore city way back in 2005 itself, nearly six years ago as part of the Central Govt.'s Port Connectivity project. This was supposed to complete in 2007, but as on date the work still crawls on with a few flyovers yet to reach any semblance of completion 4 years after the original deadline, which is a testimony to the high standards of execution set by IR-controlled IRCON International .

The stretch heading north out of Mangalore city towards Mumbai is being four-laned as part of NHDP Phase - III and about 35-40% of the work would have finished by now. The work started only last year and is moving at a brisk pace and contractor Navayuga Engg.'s performance is in stark contrast to that of IRCON.

It remains to be seen what they will do on the northern stretch that includes Bhatkal, given the possibility of 'minority sentiments' being 'hurt'. May be they will just skirt the town and move inland a bit to the right which will avoid the need to climb uphill into Riyazbhai's abode.

Another factor to bear in mind is the environmental aspect - the widening of 90km stretch north of Mangalore apparently requires cutting down of 18,000+ trees - just think of the kind of damage that can occur on the remaining stretch which is even more thickly forested in most parts. MoEF may not take too kindly to that prospect.

Sachin wrote: NH 17 seems to be a really narrow highway all the way to Edappalli Jn. in Kochi, Kerala. I feel this would be a neglected highway. In monsoons in many parts of Northern Kerala (and Southern Karnataka) this NH is a mess.

I will concur with Sachin's views especially reg the southern stretch of NH-17 past Kasaragod (OT - Bhatkal, Kasaragod...all the nice and friendly places seem to be connected by the NH-17!) - the towns along the route have grown so much that you feel as though you are driving through the CBD of some congested city, and this is the case throughout! I have had a nightmarish time trying to navigate that stretch last year, and I wouldn't think of repeating it unless absolutely necessary.

Rural roads set to go PPP way with pvt funding

As rural roads are unlikely to be run on revenues leveied through toll charges, the government is considering annuity-based schemes to incentivise private parties to invest in these projects.

Under such schemes, private developers are empowered to design, finance, build and maintain the roads in a model where the government is contractually obliged to pay them on an annualised basis after the project’s completion.

“The government will likely carry out a pilot project involving development work of approximately 500 km or rural roads,” said a source who did not wish to be identified.

The private sector participants would be granted a concession for the design, finance, construct and maintain the roads for a definite period.

In the current fiscal year ( 2011-12) an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore has been allocated for construction of rural roads.

Four-laning of 2 NHs approved

The Union government on Thursday approved the four-laning of two National Highways at an estimated cost of Rs.2,333.26 crore. It would help reduce the cost and time of travel between Orissa and Chhattisgarh and that of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) approved the four-laning of the 150-km-long Chhattisgarh-Orissa Border Aurang section of NH-6 at an estimated cost of Rs.1,548 crore.

The CCI also approved the four-laning of a 54-km stretch of the Walayar-Vadakkancherry section of NH-7 at an estimated cost of Rs.785.26 crore.

Saw this picture linked on a India Roads blog.

Yes, they are doing what you think they are doing. There is a team on every mile of highway embankment planting grass one strand at a time. Think of that next time you zip along.

A highway to hell along the coast

Driving to Neelakarai daily, I can personally vouch that the Trivanmiyur -Neelakarai Stretch is a daily nightmare and should be considered as single lane By lane and not a Highway.

P.S_> are you by any chance hinting that women working on the Grass are connected to NREGA?

Dum Dum airport uses the same strategy to cut the grass beside runways. but the time they reach one end of runway, the grass has grown back at the other end, and so the cycle continues....

the idea of planting low height carpety "australian" grass not sure its been considered or not.

X Posted from the J&K News and Discussion thread.

Work on two twin Tube road tunnels , namely Quazigund - Banihal and Chenani - Nashri , commence in Jammu and Kashmir.:

Centre Unveils Rs 10,000 Cr Road Projects for J&K

NHAI project to fetch Rs 32,000cr premium

...

Given that the value of money would not be the same at the end of the concession period, based on net present value the premium translates into about Rs 9,000 crore. The net present value is calculated after factoring in inflation.

GMR has agreed to pay a premium of Rs 636 crore annually for the next 26 years with the rider that every year, there will be an increase of 5%. So, the developer would pay around Rs 668 crore in the second year and over Rs 700 crore in the third. Apart from GMR, there were six other bidders for the projects, which included GVK-Dalfour Datty, L&T, HCC-Vinci and Soma-Isolux.

The premium amount came as a surprise for government officials too, who had opened bidding with the condition that only bids with a premium of at least Rs 298 crore would be accepted. As TOI had reported on June 24, NHAI officials had admitted that before the bidding started that they were anticipating a premium of Rs 500 crore.

Will this premium be used by NHAI to fund other road projects which will solely built by NHAI and not through Public Private model?

Road Ministry plans to invest Rs 2.64 lakh crore on highways

"The pace of infrastructure development needs acceleration if the gaps are to be bridged. We are looking at an investment ofRs 2.64 lakh crore in the highways sector in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17)," Road Transport and Highways Minister C P Joshi said. Joshi said that National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will shell out Rs 87,000 crore while the remaining Rs 1.77 lakh crore is envisaged from the private players.

"The NHAI has achieved award of 5,058 km of highways in 2010-11, which is the highest till date," he said. The Transport Ministry has set a target of awarding 7,300 km of roads in the current fiscal. India has a large network of 3.3 million km roads out of which national highways constitute only 70,548 km. To augment it the government plans to build 35,000 km of roads by 2014.

Ahmedabad gets closer to Mumbai

AHMEDABAD: The Ahmedabad-Mumbai expressway project via Vadodara and Surat has been fast-tracked. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has finally invited tenders for the six lanes over the Narmada bridge. The authority has already invited tenders for the Ahmedabad-Vadodara stretch on national highway 8.

Officials said that the NHAI had recently conducted a study to upgrade the six-kilometer-long four lanes of Narmada bridge to six lanes. About 65,000 cars ply daily on this corridor and this is expected to grow at 10 per cent. Once the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor materializes, this traffic is expected to grow at around 20 per cent.

The average speed on a two-lane road is around 50 kmph and 65 kmph on a four-lane road. The average speed will increase to around 80 to 100 kmph on the six-lane road.

Travelling from Ahmedabad to Surat presently takes nearly five hours, but with the new project, the time will be reduced to three and a half hours.

Work along the Surat-Mumbai stretch is already in process and is likely to be completed by December 2011. Officials said that many value added services like hotels, urinals and petrol pumps will be started along the stretch.

The bridge to be expanded is this, near Ankleshwar Bharuch. This is highly industrial area with many pharma companies like Lupin labs. This stretch serves as entry/exit point to/from Mumbai.

Sorry for large image. Please remove if necessary.

[img]http://static.panoramio.com/photos/orig ... 862586.jpg

Can anybody confirm the extent of progress claimed on Mumbai - Surat expressway(Completion by 2011)?