Chennai to Bangalore via Chittoor: Update on road conditions & traffic

BHPian ravib recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I travelled from Madras to Bangalore via Thiruvallur-Thiruttani-RK Pet-Sholingur-Ponnai-Chittoor-Bangalore on Jan 1st 2025. Many Thanks to @SRVM for his guidance always.

My main idea was to avoid regular Sriperumbudur-Kanchipuram-Chennasamudram road, for 3 main reasons

So many BHPians reported atrocious road conditions in this stretch damaging tyres and vehicles

Volume of traffic expected on a holiday

Explore newer option to see how it works in terms of time and road conditions.

My last trip post Deepavali, i tried and explored Ranipet-Ponnai-Chittoor route, to avoid Bommasamudram railway crossing work , so am familiar about road conditions via Ponnai Route which was good. What i wanted to explore this time is about the timing,

From a distance KMs perspective , Thiruvallur-Thiruttani-Sholingur-Ponnai route is negligible as it is just less than 10 kms more.

However, the driving time wise, it is definitely 30 minutes to 1 hour more due to narrow roads, and we have to get in and out of these towns. To top up, i travelled on Jan 1st and there were multiple villages which were celebrating new year in village temples and churches, particularly in Tiruttani, Sholingur, and Karimalai Murugan temple areas. Only savior was being a holiday on Jan 1st, passing through Chittoor town was pretty quick as there was no traffic.

Started at sharp 12 noon from Pallavaram on Jan 1st and it took solid 45 minutes to reach ThirumazhaiIsai junction to take right towards Thiruvallur.

And then due to scattered traffic all the way and huge traffic pile up in Thiruvallur town, mainly at PS4 restaurants due to proper lunch time, and a slow drive , reduced average KMPH coverage and overall it took me about 4:15 minutes to get out of Chittoor town, which is about 45 minutes more than Kanchipuram-Ranipet route normally from Pallavaram.

May be i can assume, it would have been same time on Jan 1st in Kanchipuram route , given bad roads and more traffic, just to make myself feel better

Downside of this route is post Thiruvallur, till Chittoor/Bangarupalayam Nandi Food plaza, there are no good food/rest room stop overs. So have to plan accordingly.

Post Mahasamudram Toll Plaza, continued to drive till Krishna grand after Nangli Toll and took a break for 30 mts and then continued the journey and reached Bangalore around 8 pm. So overall it was almost 8 hours including a 30 minutes break !

In current state, due to bad roads and diversions

Bangalore-Krishnagiri-Chennasamudram-Madras is 80% pain, Bangalore-Chittoor-Ranipet-Chennasamudram-Madras is 40% pain.

The alternate with good roads but narrow and slow is via Chittoor-Ponnai-Sholingur-Tiruttani-Thiruvallur route or via Chittoor-Pallipat-Nagari-Tiruttani-Thiruvallur route.

In net effect, we have to choose which one to take till BCE comes up or atleast the Chennasamudram to Sriperumbudur is patched up !

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