Chennai - Coimbatore route condition

did the TS make the trip? his feedback will be highly appreciated cos i am planning to drive to Cbe tomo morning and ppl haev been suggesting the Chennai-Tindivanam-Veppur-Salem-Bhavani route to me!

Hi friends sorry for the delay as i had been struck with my office work for the past 10 days. I indeed made the trip Chennai - Pollachi - Chennai during the Christmas weekend and used the following routes:

Onward: Chennai - Vellore - Krishnagiri - Dharmapuri - Toppur - Mettur - Bhavani - Perundurai - Tiruppur - Palladam - Pollachi (540 Kms). The route from Chennai till Toppur was just great (NH4, NH46 and NH7). Toppur till Mettur was ok with two laned roads with some rough patches in between. The first 10 Kms after Mettur will be fantastic two laned roads with clear markings but after that out of nowhere the road becomes potholed till Bhavani (about 30 Kms). But it is managable since patchwork was going on at that time. Bhavani to Perundurai is again four laned NH47 but narrows down to 2-lane after Chengampalli (20 kms before Avinashi). Chengampalli to Tiruppur and upto Pollachi is just fantastic two laned roads with sparse traffic. Took around 11 hours for the trip since i drove at a leisurely speed of 80-85 km/hr and 3 breaks of 2 hours.

Return: Just wanted to give a try for a different route and tried Pollachi - Coimbatore - Sathy - Andhiyur - Ammapettai - Mettur - Toppur - Krishnagiri - Vellore - Chennai (560 Kms). Great 2 - laned roads from Pollachi to Coimbatore right upto Sathy with good road markings. But had to be careful in the Coimbatore to Sathy section which has lot of turns, ups and downs. Slightly rough roads in Andhiyur section but after that upto Ammapettai the roads are good. The 20 km strech from Ammapettai to Mettur varies between bad, good and superb. From Mettur it is the usual good roads upto Chennai. The journey took around 12 hours with the same liesurely driving and 2 1/2 of stoppages in between.

I would strongly recommend the return route i had taken for journeys between Chennai and Coimbatore since it has sparse traffic and good roads. The reason for me doing these comparitively slow speeds (80km/hr) was that we were 5 people and 4 big luggage bags in our Maruti 800. Did not want to strain the car and got a combined mileage of 19.5 kms/lt for the whole trip including the ghat sections in Valparai and Topslip.

good review. hope you enjoyed.

HI A trip to Kumbakonam from Bangalore

I am planning to take a week end trip from Bangalore to Kumbakonam, please suggest best route with road condition for the trip. All help is appreciated. Thanks

Murali K, Bangalore

Hi, Last week only I had a long trip from Chennai to Guruvayur via Coimbatore. When I was going from here I took Chennai - Vilupuram - Tindivanam - Ulundurpet - Kallakurichi - Attur - Rasipuram - Thiruchengode - Erode and Finally Coimbatore. From Chennai to Ulundurpet, the road was awesome, but real challenge was me from Ulundurpet to Attur (That also in Night Travel )

From Attur to Coimbatore, It was fine. Again from Coimbatore to Thrissur, the road was pathetic. When I came back, I took as they have mentioned Coimbatore - Salem - Dharmapuri - Krishnagiri - Kanchipuram - Chennai. Only thing is, we have to pay a lot for Toll gate but still worth to pay for it. We can reduce a lot of time and without pain n stress. You can enjoy the Driving and if you like the driving then this is the best route you to/from Coimbatore. Enjoy your Journey only on this Route !!!  My next trip would be Chennai to Kumbakonam (Spirtual Trip).

My suggestion would be

Coimbatore - Sathyamangalam- Anthiyur - Ammapettai -Mettur-Mecheri-Thoppur-Krishnagiri-Vellore-Chennai. 

15 days back, I took this route and I was able to make it to Chennai within 7-1/2 hrs in my i10 magna.

The roads are awe some even though it is a two lane road till Thoppur.  Absolutely no traffic.

My first post in Carwale!!! Thanks to the snobs at T-BHP for continuing to ignore my painfully written writeups. Me think I was done with the writeup drill imposition excercise at school history lessons.

Anyway My Query is on the NH68 between Salem and Ulundurpet. I am planning to take my car from Tambaram to Salem. Hence would like to know the condition of the NH68 road. Given the notorious pace at which work is going on in that strectch, am worried to take NH45-68 over NH-4 AND NH7. I heard that the laning has been completed till Attur on NH68 and its only the 50km stretch between Attur and Salem that is bad. If this is true, I might still want to risk the travel. Suggestions and inputs are welcome.

We made a trip from Chennai - Tirupur - Chennai 2 days back in a Force Tempo Traveller,

From Chennai, we took the following route Chennai (Sholinganallur) - Tambaram - Chennai Bypass to Maduravoyil - NH 4 to Sriperumbudur - Vellor - NH 46 to Krishnagiri - NH 7 to Dharmapuri - Salem - NH 47 to Bhavani - Chenngapalli , take the road to Uthukuli - to Tirupur.

It took 12 hours.. very long but the roads were brilliant all through out.. plus heavy toll, around 600 rupees

To save time during the return trip we came in a different route..

Tirupur - Uthukuli - Vijayamangalam - NH 47 to Salem - Take NH 7 to Attur (road is worst from Salem -Attur, 4 lane highway is still under construction and no by pass for Attur town, got stuck in the town's traffic) - From Attur the road got better - Did not got Kallakurichi - Took the SH 10 (cudalore - vridhachalam highway) to Veppur - NH 45 to Ulundurpet - Tindivanam - Chengalpet - Tambaram - Sembakam - Medavakam - Shollinganalur

This took 10 hours..

Road between Salem - Attur (NH 7) was a night mare.. After attur, SH10 to veppur was 2 lane, but 75% of the stretch was very good and newly built with cat eye reflectors in the middle of the road.. the rest was under construciton.. once we reached NH4.. the road is very smooth,, 4 lane world class highway to Chennai..

You save about 300 rupees worth toll fees.. and also saved 2 hours..

Neither the driver or us had any prior knowledge of the chennai tirupur route.. for the first part the driver was asking for direction very frequently.. once we realized that he didnt know the route.. we mostly depended on google maps on our phones. If only the road conditions were good on the return journey.. we would have saved atleast 2 more hours..

Is there a better route that any one can suggest?

why not this

Chennai-Krishnagiri-Mettur-BhAVANI-pERUNDURAI-uTTUKULI-tIRUPUR?

eLSE

sHOLINGANALLUR-tAMBARAM-tIRUCHY kARUR-kANGEYAM-tIRUPUR

or

tAMBARAM-tvmalai-Harur-Salem-Bhavani-Tiruppur