Road Trip - Bangalore to Chidambaram via Salem, Veppur, Virudachalam

Travelled on 08 Oct 2015.

Route

Electronic city - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Salem - 80km through Salem-Chennai highway, then take right - then 100 kms through Veppur, Virudachalam bypass - Bhuvanagiri - Chidambaram


Toll

Attibele - Rs. 25
Krishnagiri - Rs. 60
Thoppur (before climbing down ghat road) - Rs. 86 
Omallur, Salem (Just before Periyar University) - Rs. 69 
Toll - 47
Toll - 49

From Salem, go straight on three roundabouts. After crossing third roundabout, you can see a overbridge go over the bridge and again go straight on the bridge, there is a deviation to right, which takes you to Madurai.

In the Salem-Chennai highway, there are unexpected two lanes are there, be careful with that. After few kilometres in two lane again four lane starts. 2 or 3 places are like this, be careful with two lane road in between.

There are two toll booth (both around Rs. 50) in the 80km stretch of Chennai highway, after around 2 kilometres from second toll booth you have to take the service road, go under the bridge and take right to Veppur, Virudachalam, Bhuvanagiri, Chidambaram stretch. The 100 kms after deviating from Salem-Chennai highway is in bad condition. Drive carefully through this.

Safe Drive !!!

Road Trip - Bangalore to Mangalore via Kunigal, Channarayapatana, Hassan

Last travelled on 5 Mar 2016.

The route is,

Bangalore - NICE road - Nelamangala - Take left from Nelamangala by pass to Mangalore road - Kunigal - Channarayapatana - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Uppinangadi - Bantwal - Mangalore

Total distance - 380kms

Bangalore till Hassan is four lane road and the road is in good condition. You can race along the road. From Hassan it is two lane road. After Sakleshpur, ghat road begins. Its a pretty long ghat road, about 30 kms. Besides ghat road there is a water fall, its a pretty great experience. Some curves in the ghat road are very huge and dangerous, be careful with that. Also, there is a heavy truck traffic along the road. As Mangalore has lot of oil & gas refineries, you can find lot of bullet tankers on the road.

Bullet tanker

After ghat road ends (Gundya), if we go straight on NH 48 or NH 75 for around, 20 kilometres, then there are clear sign boards to take right for Dharmasthala.

There is two lane road at Channarayapatana by pass. After travelling in 4 lane, sudden two lane is a bit surprise. After few kilometres again four lane starts.

Toll Plaza Details

Toll plaza	Rate
NICE road	Rs 155
Nelamangala	Rs 20 (double 30)
Toll	Rs 41 (double 62)
Toll	Rs 41 (double 62)
Toll	Rs 40
Toll	Rs 30 (double 55)
Toll (Bantwal)	Rs 20 (double 35)

The toll I mentioned here is for four wheeler.

Restaurants

Just after Channarayapatana bypass you can see A2B(Adyar Anandha Bhavan) and on the other side of the road, you can see Kamat. We had a break at A2B, its pretty big and nice food.

A2B after Channarayapatana byepass