Indian Roads Thread

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 28 Dec 2010 21:30

Dileep wrote:Let us take some statistics. How many 'injury accidents' happen per year for a taxi originating from the COK airport in the NH-47? Next to zero. Like a good yindoo, believe in Karma and enjoy the ride onlee.

For the traffic density that is seen on Kerala roads in general and NH-47 with just two lanes in most places, more than Karma and yindoo religiosity displayed before taking the wheels by drivers at every instance, I had attributed the low accident rates to better skills of the suicidal drivers. But even skills have their limits as the parameters increase (with each situation and more drivers on the road), that need to be autonomously monitored by the human brain with good hand-eye co-ordination.

Talking of religiosity, my pet theory which will get little traction among the believers is that it is this very spirituality that has led to worse driving skills, in the false hope that yindoo/yesu/arrah's gods will protect us come what may, or however bad one may drive and leading to pushing the envelope of safety when behind the wheels.

As expressways increase along with traffic density, something will give very soon.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 30 Dec 2010 11:29

Just back after another trip on one of the much discussed routes here. That is the Bengaluru->Salem->Coimbatore four-laned highway. Thanks to SHQ managed to make a small video recording of the trip. Thought I would put it up on Youtube for a while

.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGHPBKTxU5I

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 30 Dec 2010 11:42

Raja Bose wrote:^^^Singha, didn't know you were a closet Dilli Billi

Pratyush mian, I can personally vouch for the fact that Kolkata driving is worse than Dilli as of now.

nahaah,

I have seen the Kolkotta drivers about 2 years ago. They are tame when compared to the NCR ones. Due to the slow speed in general. At least they wont hit a stationary car on the road and then blame you for braking hain jee.

But the Delhi car dirvers however bad and bold/ sucidal cannot match up to the Auto drivers of BLR.

Rode in one about 3 years ago and the guy was driving as if there was no tommorow. Me suddenly rememberd Hunuman Chalisa to preserve my life.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 30 Dec 2010 12:46

^^Sir Jee, I am speaking from experiences I had on Kolkata and Dilli roads just a few weeks back - Dilli drives like a bunch of sober gentlemen as compared to the "tum-mujhe-khoon-do" revolutionaries of Kolkata. As for crashing into a stationary car, get a load of this: My cousin's car was parked on the side of the road near Golf Green, with cousin on sidewalk talking to me when off came a Amby taxi zooming thru without headlights, swerved to avoid a rickshaw fella who decided to test his body's ability to absorb impact from bodies with very high momentum, Amby hits cousin's car, cousin's car hits sumo in front - everybody gets out and sumo driver gets abused (incld. of all people, by the rickshaw wallah!) as to why he parked such a big vehicle on the side of the road.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 30 Dec 2010 13:58

Oh.....

Poor sumo wala.

But my experience of 2 years ago was so nice.

.

Dileep · Post by **Dileep** » 04 Jan 2011 11:37

Want to report a completely counter intuitive (ie pure malluesq) phenomenon close to home here in DMA.

There is a main arterial road that goes from the city proper to the ITVty area, which had something like 15 metres of right of way. some 8m of it was paved into an almost 2 lane carriageway, leaving the rest on either side as unpaved shoulder. Cars parked and people walked on the shoulder, and shops encroached it to extend their available business area.

Then, the authorities, faces with elections to the local bodies (done) and state legislature (in May), decided to improve it by vacating the encroachments, rebuilding the drains and paving the entire width. The work is now complete for a 2km stretch.

Now, the situation is WORSE. The road is IMPASSABLE, both for vehicles and pedestrians.

What happens is, the vehicles try to occupy the entire available paved area, driving the pedestrians to climb up on the wall to escape. Then, there will be vehicles parked on the side. This breaks the stream, and the vehicles in that stream will try to barge into the other streams to their right, making a block. the flow in that direction slows for a moment. Then the flow in the opposite direction occupies the entire width in both directions, and they deadlock.

Result, you can't drive. You can't walk.

vina · Post by **vina** » 04 Jan 2011 12:16

Sachin wrote:Just back after another trip on one of the much discussed routes here. That is the Bengaluru->Salem->Coimbatore four-laned highway. Thanks to SHQ managed to make a small video recording of the trip. Thought I would put it up on Youtube for a while .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGHPBKTxU5I

The problem in MalluStan is not only that there are no major trunk roads with carrying capacity, but also the secondary roads are not upto scratch..

For eg, check out this road map of India and compare TN and Kerala. The problem really is not the red NSEW corridor , a spur of which goes to Kochi , but rather the lack of the thick Grey colored netework to the eat of the NSEW corridor (NH-7) corridor. Those roads are pretty good. In fact, Chennai-Tindivanam-Trichy (was done) and I think Madurai too is nearly done is 4 lane and pretty good , and the spurs leading away from that route is pretty decent as well (Tindivanam- Pondi getting 4 laned) /widened /getting shoulders etc etc. Notice the rather small percentage of yellow colored roads.

Given the smaller size of Kerala and its more dense population, they should really really push to make the smaller yellow colored highways, which really are spur connecting the trunks and maybe a parallel "gray" network , flowing N/S with eastward and west ward spurs closer to the foothills of the ghats and away from the coast, where hopefully, it will be less populated, That way, if you want to drive TVM to BLR, you quickly get on to NH-7 say at Madurai /Dindigal and avoid that nightmarish drive up to Kochi an then enter TN from Palghat.

Another thought. Why don't they do a civilized thing and build roll on roll off high speed ferry services between TVM and Koch and Kozhikode with stops in Kollam,Allepey etc? Surely, the "intellectuals" with PeeYecchDees and "Upper Hands" wont be coming out to sea to protest.

It will be lot faster to build that. Just build terminals and connectivity for the trucks and then , simply import those ro-ro ferries and I sure all the fat moneyed Mallus in Gelf will be falling over themselves to invest in it. And no need for too many environmental and clearances and other stuff either!

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 04 Jan 2011 12:25

vina wrote:Another thought. Why don't they do a civilized thing and build roll on roll off high speed ferry services between TVM and Koch and Kozhikode with stops in Kollam,Allepey etc? Surely, the "intellectuals" with PeeYecchDees

Such a plan was thought of for passenger ferries. I mean some good high speed ferries which pick up people from say Kozhikode and come quickly via sea and drop them off at Kochi. God know's why the project did not take off. The utilisation of Kerala's water ways as extremely poor (we still have slow coach boats running in Aalapuzha area). But the government wants to build green field airports at every Panchayath. Guess, there are more chances of looting in airport construction than allowing high speed ferries in the big open seas. Another idea mooted was to quadriple the railway lines in the socialist republic and have Mumbai-like suburban trains at very short intervals. But that would involve land acquisition which is a big no no.

Dileep · Post by **Dileep** » 04 Jan 2011 13:35

My cousin (who is a GM at PGCIL now) made a proposal for airships to ply in mallustan during his BE days. I was a science enthu schoolkid those days, and we used to have long discussions about it.

The coastal high speed ferry using hydrofoil craft was mooted some time, but it seems it viable only during the fair weather season.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 04 Jan 2011 17:50

so how far from coimbatore does the 4 lane thing end ? before or after the avinashi turnoff toward conoor-ooty?

to avoid the 'pleasures' of the blr-mysore and masinagudi ghat roads I was planning a expedetion to conoor via that route...hopefully most of it on 4 laned wonders.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 04 Jan 2011 19:21

Sadly when I went thru they were slooowly 4-laning between Tirupur and Salem. Most of the paving was done for this stretch so probably open by now. Pretty much 2-lane after Tirupur. Took me 4-hours to get thru after some detours thru dodgy little country roads. There is one section inside Kerala that was 4-lane near Cherthala. Work was on near Coimbatore and the TN border.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 04 Jan 2011 20:12

Singha wrote:so how far from coimbatore does the 4 lane thing end ? before or after the avinashi turnoff toward conoor-ooty?

The four laning ends at Perumanallur. Googlewa says the distance between Perumanallur and Coimbatore City are 54kms.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source= ... =UTF8&z=11

vina · Post by **vina** » 04 Jan 2011 20:44

to avoid the 'pleasures' of the blr-mysore and masinagudi ghat roads I was planning a expedetion to conoor via that route...hopefully most of it on 4 laned wonders.

Well, unless you absolutely must take the Civic with you to Coonoor, it might make lot more sense to take a train in to Coimbatore and then hire a taxi at Coimbatore for the duration of your stay at Conoor. Will work out pretty much close to the cost of driving all the way to Coonoor and back if you are planning to take this route I guess @ 12 kmpl and Rs 63 per liter of petrol .

And of course the option of taking the mountain train to Coonoor also is there if you take the train.

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 05 Jan 2011 04:11

vina wrote: Given the smaller size of Kerala and its more dense population, they should really really push to make the smaller yellow colored highways, which really are spur connecting the trunks and maybe a parallel "gray" network , flowing N/S with eastward and west ward spurs closer to the foothills of the ghats and away from the coast, where hopefully, it will be less populated, That way, if you want to drive TVM to BLR, you quickly get on to NH-7 say at Madurai /Dindigal and avoid that nightmarish drive up to Kochi an then enter TN from Palghat.

Actually there is one such effort going on:

There has been a long running bid to get the Secretariat Building honchos to sign up on a project to reopen an ancient route (used for trading till pre-1947) to the east of Trivandrum/Pathanamthitta Districts to join Thirunelveli town, called the Kottoor-Ambasamudram road. It fell into disrepair after independence and advent of NH7 as well as NH47. This stretch (hardly 50kms or so) will cut travel time to Bangalore/Chennai by at least 2 hours compared to the circuitous U-turn at Nagercoil (to join NH7 when travelling from Trivandrum), as well as relieving the NH47 of this traffic both south and North of Trivandrum.

After wasting time at Kerala Secratariat buildings, some interested people (bijnejj bodies, tours/travel types, small retailers, techies etc) keen on faster travel from Trivandrum to Bangalore/Chennai tried another approach: get help from TN side. They talked with Thiru Mu-ka's clan as wall as Sow Amma's clan. Those two folks were more pragmatic, due to some positive feedback from Thirunelveli retail-types, that were supportive of the idea

and AFAIK, the story was that TN govt even did some prelim studies and estimates to reopen the route to a two-lane std (sufficient for a bus-route).

Last I heard, they are trying to get the Hon MP interested as well as get it into the district's MLA candidates attention for the next Assembly elections (mid next year). Plus Shree MMS is coming to town this month for a long pending event and he is expected to give an audition on such matters.

Another thought. Why don't they do a civilized thing and build roll on roll off high speed ferry services between TVM and Koch and Kozhikode with stops in Kollam,Allepey etc? Surely, the "intellectuals" with PeeYecchDees and "Upper Hands" wont be coming out to sea to protest.

It will be lot faster to build that. Just build terminals and connectivity for the trucks and then , simply import those ro-ro ferries and I sure all the fat moneyed Mallus in Gelf will be falling over themselves to invest in it. And no need for too many environmental and clearances and other stuff either!

hmm... in addition to rough seas, some lame-ass arguments I heard are

1) "Get into your berth,to lie down in the <insert a train name that goes from Trivandrum Central to Kanjhangad and vice-versa> in the evening and reach your destination next morning, phresh as a lark!! So why these fads?"

2) What about "poor poor traditional fisherman?" wont the get ploughed under the waves by the yeevil ferries?

Behind the disinterested reply #1 above is this unsaid thing (which also wrecked that toll-based expressway proposed by Shree Munir of the previous UDF govt): "we politicians dont need to travel faster, unlike you business chaps. Our voters aint going anywhere and our routes are fixed"

But I believe there is some change happening, with the old codgers passing on. Eg: some of the leftie younger leaders are far easier to talk to without having the urge to blow chunks into their shirtfronts.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 05 Jan 2011 08:01

A spur just north of TVM connecting to NH-7 though clearly beneficial for traffic originating way south in Kerala, still does not add much value overall to rest of the state. The shortest connectivity is via Mysore to Blr by way of Nanjangud and perhaps the Sultan Battheri highway rather than the Nilambur route to avoid the tiger conservation areas.

Add a 4 or 6-lane spur from the border via Malappuram-Palakkad district straight to Trichur and NH47 will take care of the rest. The traffic heading north of Kozikode from Blr can take NH17 which is the closest to the big towns. Of course NH17 also need expansion to 3+3 lanes all the way to M'lore. Population density here is lower than southern districts.

If Muneer's expressway was built as planned 30km inland of the current alignment of NH47, then it will cover most of Kerala for local as well as trunk connectivity.

Follow the highway marked yellow in the link vina provided, on the Mysore-Ooty route to see for yourself. NH7 goes way too east of Blr almost a quarter of the way to Madras from kerala. The Mysore-Nanjangud-Gudlapet is a straight stretch and can be easily made into a 3+3 lane road all the way and access controlled.

When I drove recently we took the left spur to Nilambur instead of towards Sultan Batheri to Calicut, but was told the alternate one is a good wide road. Only Malappuram roads will need serious work and upgrades for the connectivity to work. Rest except for NH47 stretch are in place, like the Trichur-Shornur-Palakkad-Coimbatore stretch which is only 1+1 lanes now, but can be doubled too as it is not as densely populated as the NH17 corridor is.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 05 Jan 2011 11:08

vina wrote:
to avoid the 'pleasures' of the blr-mysore and masinagudi ghat roads I was planning a expedetion to conoor via that route...hopefully most of it on 4 laned wonders.
Well, unless you absolutely must take the Civic with you to Coonoor, it might make lot more sense to take a train in to Coimbatore and then hire a taxi at Coimbatore for the duration of your stay at Conoor. Will work out pretty much close to the cost of driving all the way to Coonoor and back if you are planning to take this route I guess @ 12 kmpl and Rs 63 per liter of petrol .

And of course the option of taking the mountain train to Coonoor also is there if you take the train.

Vina, Singha will tank up in Hosur where us TN wallahas pay Rs.60.44 per litre. God, we TN fellows compare petrol prices in Delhi and cry, a trip to Hyderabad, see my F-in-law filling petrol at Rs. 62.44 quickly cures the agreived heart. But Delhiwallahs don't pay but get the best roads.

vina · Post by **vina** » 05 Jan 2011 11:32

Singha will tank up in Hosur where us TN wallahas pay Rs.60.44 per litre

Pondicherry has it best in that petrol business. I remember that 2 /3 years ago, the price diff per liter of petrol between Bangalore and Pody was something close to Rs 15 per liter!

Add to that the far lower initial cost of the car (very little road tax and negligbible other tax) , owning and driving a car in Pondy should be among the cheapest in the country .

Bangalore is really really really expensive. I think one can even survive in Dilli , but I think weighted avg of price levels in Bangalore (from power to petrol to rent to veggies to meat to everything) tops everything else in the country.

. Taxes are pretty high in Karnataka.

Christopher Sidor · Post by **Christopher Sidor** » 05 Jan 2011 12:15

Guys people in other states like Gujarat, AP, TN, etc pay high price for petrol, because the state government places higher taxes on it. A majority of Indian provincial revenue comes from two sources, liquor and taxes on petroleum products. In certain cases, I have heard that close to 40-50% of price we pay for petroleum products at the petrol pump goes to the State governments.

vina · Post by **vina** » 05 Jan 2011 12:19

A majority of Indian provincial revenue comes from two sources, liquor and taxes on petroleum products

Dilli's revenue comes from a cut of the taxes paid by people in other states!

Dileep · Post by **Dileep** » 05 Jan 2011 13:42

There is one section inside Kerala that was 4-lane near Cherthala

You hadn't been around to these parts of the wood for a couple of decade, had you?

NH-47 was 4-laned in the 90s, from Cherthala to Aroor, and from Vytila to Angamaly. The missing segment of Aroor-Vytila is 4 laned (with parts 6 laned) recently. The segment between Angamaly to Mannuthy near Trichur is under construction, with a good % finished 4 lane.

The segments Mannuthy-Walayar and Cherthala-Trivandrum are stuck with political opposition.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 05 Jan 2011 14:49

Dileep,

I'm speaking from March 2010. Palakkad to Ernakulam was easily the worst experience I had, and I've had a few bad ones in rural TN. That stretch threw my travel plans out and our driver took 4 hours to get through that one stretch. The traffic and crazy detour my 'local' driver took were crazy. If 4 laning is done here by now I stand humbled by Kerala modern efficiency.

Ernakulam to Allepey only took us about 30 minutes at 2 AM at 100 Kmph. So my sense of scale is all turned around.

On the way back from Nagercoil, we did the U-turn thru Tirunelveli and still made it to Coimbatore in 3 hours less.

As far as that road through the Agasthiamalai it will never happen for 2 reasons.

- The original reason the road was first abandoned was the construction of the Pechiparai, Kodaiyar and Manimuthar dams along its way. This forced the road up into the hill sides and turned a relatively passable road into a fully ghat road with hairpin curve after hairpin curve. This has not changed unless we now build tunnels using all those wonderful Delhi metro machines.
- The second is Elephants. The Agasthiamalai national park is bang in the way. The Elephants there are a distinct sub-species that need to be protected. No way a 4-lane expressway is constructed through it.

vina · Post by **vina** » 05 Jan 2011 14:59

- The original reason the road was first abandoned was the construction of the Pechiparai, Kodaiyar and Manimuthar dams along its way. This forced the road up into the hill sides and turned a relatively passable road into a fully ghat road with hairpin curve after hairpin curve. This has not changed unless we now build tunnels using all those wonderful Delhi metro machines.
- The second is Elephants. The Agasthiamalai national park is bang in the way. The Elephants there are a distinct sub-species that need to be protected. No way a 4-lane expressway is constructed through i

Fair enough. What about the Kollam-Tenkasi route via the Ariyankavur pass, the NH-208 route , (the old Quilon express meter gauge train used to run that route as well and long long long ago, that was the main route (shortest one as well) between TVM and Madras )? Surely that can be widened and made 4 lane connecting Quilon to Tenkasi and on Madurai from where NH7 takes you straight up north to Bangalore via Salem & Hosur and Chennai via Trichy and Tindivanam ?.

How is that route now ? The last I went that side was when my grand parents took me there as a kid, remember a Shasta temple a little off in to the forest in Aryankavur and Gradma's dad ~~was~~ had been a a postmaster /official running the Aryankavur area when she was a small child and also visited Shencottah in TN where one of my gradpa's relatives had been a forest officer and I remember a big colonial bungalow in the middle of some fields.

Pretty scenic place , I only very vaguely remember.

Dileep · Post by **Dileep** » 05 Jan 2011 16:57

Theo, my comment was purely based on the quoted sentence. Cherthala is the south end of the 4 lane stretch, and if you came from the north, you would have seen an unbroken, heavily travelled, unmarked, 'officially 4 lane' stretch from Angamaly to Vytila, then a few stretches of half paved highway, and then picked up the 'official 4 lane' again at Aroor, to Cherthala. From Cherthala southward, it would be potholed 2 lane highway (even now).

The Angamaly-Mannuthy section is still under construction. Most of the stretches would be using the half side of the under construction highway for 2 lane traffic, with some stretches of the old potholed highway still being used.

No. KL hadn't changed at all. The only change would be that the Vytila-Aroor stretch is now completed.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 05 Jan 2011 19:56

Yes, one could definitely 4-lane the Tenkasi route. The problem is that TN would then have to 4-lane the old Tenkasi to Virudupati road. Other wise you end up having to go through Tirunelveli to pick up the 4-lane to North. This is why much of the traffic here actually goes through Kumili & the Kumbum valley onwards. This is a much more direct shot after the Ghat roads. That is a relatively good road as well.

WRT to Tenkasi, You must be talking about the Achenakovil Temple. One several odd Kerala temples that are only accessible through TN. Due to the difficult access for Keralites no one lives here AFAIK. Very pretty forest country.

Dileep,

Good to know SRK hasn't changed just yet. You had me worried there for a while

These are the certainties of life.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 05 Jan 2011 22:15

Sachin or anyone else from Northern districts, have you guys taken the Calicut route via Mysore. Does it pass through the sanctuary too or kind of side steps it. Isn't this the regular bus route that Calicut guys take from Blr ? Or am I wrong on that count.

Developing this corridor as an alternative to Palakkad can be immensely beneficial. Not to mention bringing Malapuram out of general backwardness. The most horrible roads in Kerala are right there, though I saw some construction activities along that stretch too.

The NH47 stretch from Chertala-Kollam-TVM is not bad in comparison though it is also only 1+1 lanes wide for most of the stretch.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 06 Jan 2011 09:39

Bade wrote:Sachin or anyone else from Northern districts, have you guys taken the Calicut route via Mysore. Does it pass through the sanctuary too or kind of side steps it. Isn't this the regular bus route that Calicut guys take from Blr ?

Basically there are three routes available for folks coming from Bangalore to land up at Kozhikode, through Mysore.
1. The Bangalore->Mysore->Nanjangud->Gundlupet->S.Bathery->Kalpetta->Kozhikode (mainly on NH212). This route passes through the Bandipur sanctuary in an area between Gundlupet and Muthanga (Kerala). This route is now blocked for night time traffic (though there are rumours that Inter-state buses of the Govt. owned RTCs are let through).
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source= ... 31842&z=10
2. The Bangalore->Mysore->Hampapura->Bavali->Mananthavady->Kuttiadi->Kozhikode route. This route pretty much bye-passes the Bandipur sanctuary. But there is still a small stretch of forest between Heggadevana Kotte and Bavali. The road between these areas are also pretty much non-existant. Buses frequent this route, and this is the shortest route (108kms) between Mysore, Karnataka and Mananthavady, Kerala.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source= ... 927368&z=8
3. Bangalore->Edawala (skipping Mysore)->Hunsur->Kutta (through Nagarhole forest)->Kaatikulam->Mananthavady->Kozhikode is another route.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source= ... 463684&z=9

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 06 Jan 2011 09:43

Bade wrote:Developing this corridor as an alternative to Palakkad can be immensely beneficial. Not to mention bringing Malapuram out of general backwardness.

Folks from Malappuram, or northern parts of Palakkad Dt. and may be some near by areas in Kozhikode have another route to reach Bangalore. That is via Nilambur->Edakkad->Naadukani Ghat->Gudallur (TN)->Bandipur forests->Gundlupet (KA)->Nanjangud->Mysore->Bangalore. This route is again blocked for night traffic.

For folks from other parts of Palakkad and Thrissur (and may be Ernakulam) as well the simple and straight forward route is the NH47 (till Salem) and NH7 (from Salem to Bangalore). After Perumanallur,TN this road is any way a good four-lane highway.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 06 Jan 2011 10:03

Thanks Sachin. That means a hill country highway to feed these routes with an approx NW-SE alignment will make for easy connectivity and a pleasant experience considering the scenic route.

We took NH67 the gudalur-ooty route before forking away via Mudulamalai Forest to the border.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 06 Jan 2011 10:07

Time taken for Salem route to Blr and via the Gudalur-Mysore was approximately the same, despite much worse road conditions in case of the latter. So the distance has to significantly shorter for the second route, though we did not keep a good record of distance covered as we did some sightseeing in Mysore.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 06 Jan 2011 10:45

After reading the purusha sukta in the roads thread let me highlight that I had a wonderful pleasant journey from cok to pgt, the taxi drive was the best thing ever happened in road experience in kerala - left cok @2am and did arrive in the best shapes by 6am, quite a bit of hours for that distance, but was really pleasant. no such blazing racing lorries nor those blasting flashing lights. The driver was wonderful and it was a real journey in the land of Gods. Enjoyed the early mist and the mighty terrain and tropical morning.

After a bath and breakfast, I onlee noted that it was a kerala strike/bundh day. Lucky to be alive now.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 06 Jan 2011 11:26

Bade wrote:Time taken for Salem route to Blr and via the Gudalur-Mysore was approximately the same, despite much worse road conditions in case of the latter.

If a person says starts from the district border of Pgt at Cherpulassery town, the time he takes to reach would be pretty much the same

. Gudallur->Mysore is around 60kms shorter.

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 07 Jan 2011 03:07

Bade-saar, in addition to the above three via Wayanad, there is a more Northerly route via Kannur-Mattannur-Iritty-Virajpet-Hunsur-Mysore-Bangalore. Less fun than Thamarassery precipices

, but still memorable. I love driving through these routes in the morning and early evening. Best time to get big game views.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Jan 2011 09:19

well the virajpet-hunsur stretch is indeed quite scenic but the road will need a lot of widening and improvement to be classified as a mainstream route. for instance there is a long but quite rickety 1.5 lane bridge near virajpet over the kaveri that can lead to soiled khakis. traffic was quite light when I drove in monsoon time.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 07 Jan 2011 09:33

So I guess three more options to try out along with a border crossing via Munnar route to Madurai for the next four India trips. Will take a long time to cover even most of South India at this rate.

vina · Post by **vina** » 07 Jan 2011 09:46

So I guess three more options to try out along with a border crossing via Munnar route to Madurai for the next four India trips. Will take a long time to cover even most of South India at this rate.

Yes. I have done that route. Very nice and a pretty ghat section. Takes around 5 hrs Munnar-Madurai via this road.

There are two ways of doing it if coming from Kochi . Kochi- Munnar and from Munnar you go to Thekkady and then cross via Kumili (that ghat section is not as much), or if you skip Thekkady, then Munnar to Bodi- Top, and then Bodi, Theni, Madurai. That is when I experienced the Soo-Sidal tendencies on the Mallustan side. The high ghat roads had little/no traffic , other than the occasional state transport bus/ jeep/van , narrow road, sheer cliffs at some places, so not too much herrowism on the that stretch but and a very nice scenic drive (best be a passenger and enjoy, leave the driving to the driver, unfortunately SHQ doesnt drive in India

, so I really dont get to see anything but the road), but just outside Munnar /Eravaikulam/..oh my God!

merlin · Post by **merlin** » 07 Jan 2011 14:50

Sachin wrote:
Bade wrote:Sachin or anyone else from Northern districts, have you guys taken the Calicut route via Mysore. Does it pass through the sanctuary too or kind of side steps it. Isn't this the regular bus route that Calicut guys take from Blr ?
Basically there are three routes available for folks coming from Bangalore to land up at Kozhikode, through Mysore.
1. The Bangalore->Mysore->Nanjangud->Gundlupet->S.Bathery->Kalpetta->Kozhikode (mainly on NH212). This route passes through the Bandipur sanctuary in an area between Gundlupet and Muthanga (Kerala). This route is now blocked for night time traffic (though there are rumours that Inter-state buses of the Govt. owned RTCs are let through).
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source= ... 31842&z=10
2. The Bangalore->Mysore->Hampapura->Bavali->Mananthavady->Kuttiadi->Kozhikode route. This route pretty much bye-passes the Bandipur sanctuary. But there is still a small stretch of forest between Heggadevana Kotte and Bavali. The road between these areas are also pretty much non-existant. Buses frequent this route, and this is the shortest route (108kms) between Mysore, Karnataka and Mananthavady, Kerala.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source= ... 927368&z=8
3. Bangalore->Edawala (skipping Mysore)->Hunsur->Kutta (through Nagarhole forest)->Kaatikulam->Mananthavady->Kozhikode is another route.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source= ... 463684&z=9

That small forest stretch mentioned in route 2 is not short - more than 20 kms for sure and its also Nagarhole (a deviation on this road leads to the famed Kabini River Lodge. The road was horrible sometime back and I've heard (but not verified) that its now freshly laid.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 07 Jan 2011 17:15

merlin wrote: That small forest stretch mentioned in route 2 is not short - more than 20 kms for sure and its also Nagarhole (a deviation on this road leads to the famed Kabini River Lodge. The road was horrible sometime back and I've heard (but not verified) that its now freshly laid.

Sir-jee.
The small forest stretch which we need to cross could be part of the Nagarhole forest, I was'nt too sure. When I meant a short stretch of the road, I meant the "bad stretch". The forest route is more or less 20kms, but the really bad stretch is for around 9kms. And the really really bad road is for around 1-2 kms. This road condition status is as of two weeks back

. Apart from this bad area the road (in Kerala and in Karnataka) are really good. For me, I could make up what ever time lost in this bad road when we reached the good roads.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Jan 2011 18:27

kabini river lodge is good mashallah esp the new cottages, the tents are truly horrible and musty (my misfortune to land in one). for honeymooners there is a much more expensive cicada resort on the same road .

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 11 Jan 2011 07:49

Bad roads choke Chennai box terminal

The Chennai Port's access by road has been in shambles for several years now. Poor planning, a lack of urgency and interminable litigation have delayed road projects for decades now. Trucks pile up for miles on one of these roads hampering other regular traffic causing untold hardship for residents. There have been frequent clashes between residents and other users of the road and the truckers. Deaths on these potholed, narrow roads have been common. What the State government and the Centre had not realized was that when ports are upgraded or new container terminals are built, roads to evacuate the increased volume of port capacity have to be built too. A Port Connectivity Project was announced on a grand scale all over our country in January 2001 for the 12 major ports but very little has been achieved. Chennai Port is one of the worst sufferers. There has been very poor coordination between the Port Authority, State Government, NHAI, and the Environment Ministry in the Chennai port road upgradation work. There are three road connectivity projects for the two ports at Chennai (Chennai Port & Ennore Port). One is the Chennai-Ennore Port Road Connectivity project, the other two are to provide better connectivity to NH5 & NH 4. The Chennai-Ennore Port Road Connectivity Project (current cost Rs 600 Crores) was conceived in c. 1998 and not much has been practically seen on the ground since then ! This involved upgrading the existing Ennore Expressway (which is under serious sea erosion attack), the Thiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetty High Road that would connect with NH5. This is a 30 Km stretch that connects all the container freight stations. Then there is the Chennai Port - Maduravoyal-Poonamallee Elevated Expressway (19 Kms at a cost of Rs 1700 Crores) to connect to NH4 (this would also provide an alternate connectivity to NH45 going south to Trichy when the Outer Ring Road project is completed)that threatens to be launched anytime for the last five years ! The Environment Ministry continues to insist that no clearance has been given for this project though the PM has laid the foundation stone already last year. Of course not much has been done except some survey over slum clearance along the Cooum river which is the alignment.

Thanks to bad roads and the absence of sufficient exit routes that hamper movement of trucks, Chennai port is in a mess.

The port is overflowing with containers, and, as an official of a leading Custom House Agency said, the situation is very grim.

This statistics give an idea of how grim the situation is. The DP World Chennai's yard can hold 8,000 TEUs, but as of this morning, there were 13,000 TEUs in the terminal, comprising 6,275 imported containers and 1,455 containers waiting for the ships. “There is hardly any space for moving the containers within the terminal, leave alone moving them out of the port,” an official said.

If this situation continues longer, some automobile companies in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka could face production hits. In fact, one car manufacturer had brought in 15 technicians from abroad for a “special project”. These people have been staying idle for the last five days because the imported components for the ‘project' are stuck in the port.

Boxes piling up

Meanwhile, import boxes keep piling up with each passing day. Some of the shipping lines have even stopped accepting export cargo in the last three-four days due to bad situation. This means an exporter needs to wait for things to normalise or move to another port. In fact, DP World Chennai, which operates the berths in the port, has appealed to the trade to ‘rationalise' their imports and exports, in view of the congestion.

Over stays

Due to congestion, a container ship that used to stay at the terminal for two days now stays for over four days. The total stay – right from the time of a ship's arrival at Chennai port's anchorage to the time it departs from the terminal – has increased to nearly six days from the earlier three, he said.

A ship with a capacity of around 2,000 boxes pays a daily berth hire charge of around Rs 1 lakh, and another Rs 1 lakh as charter hire. “We are more than double the cost due to delay,” he said. The problem arose mainly due to external factors such as not having enough entry/exit gates, and bad roads — not due to “operational issues”, an official of the port said.

“Trucks are unable to come on time and pick up the boxes,” said an official.

Last week, a team of officials comprising senior bureaucrats of the State Government inspected vulnerable points in north Chennai and made an on the spot assessment of the issues that required immediate attention.

The inspection was necessitated after the intervention of the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary, who has sought a detailed report on how to get rid of the perennial congestion issue before the review meeting on January 12.

Meanwhile, industry sources said gate 2A was opened last night to allow movement of direct delivery to clients.

However, those boxes that need to be moved to the container freight station continue to use the Zero gate.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 11 Jan 2011 11:38

Sridhar,

I'm a little baffled by the environment clearance in the middle of the city!

Is this another shakedown? There was no such requirement for the Metro for instance. If they follow the twisty Cooum won't this actually be a longer route ? Also wasn't the old Royapuram station renovated to handle this cargo load. That too does not appear functional.

In any case this is shameful. I remember working on a report for an elevated expressway down mount road in the 80's to decongest the port.