Trip to Bangalore-From Chennai
Finally we got to travel on the new Chennai-Bangalore highway in the past couple of days. I have been hearing so much about it ever since it was completed and this time when a Bangalore visit was required we decided that a drive it had to be. Now if a person inclined to finding faults were to go on such a road trip you bet the smallest of complaints will be blown out of proportion and transformed into a post. Dear reader, I am sorely tempted to do the same because I did have minor comments, petty bits of sarcasm that I bored my fellow travelers with. Nevertheless, it was a comfortable journey on a very well-maintained highway, something that can be done without worrying about bad roads near Vellore or wondering if the Chitoor route is better and so on.
We took the route via Vellore and easily covered the 290 odd kilometers in 4 hours. It can be done faster; it can even be done slower because there are no badly behaved drivers honking their way past you. The traffic flows smoothly and there is plenty of space for each vehicle to pace itself.
There are three toll booths each of which collect a minimum of Rs.25 for a single trip four-wheeler. We had doled out a 25 - 35 - 25 before we steered clear of tolls. Not all the booths were computerized either. Reliance has a few petrol bunks near Hosur, not all of them operational, with a refreshment counter (maybe you can call it a fast food place) and pretty decent restrooms and shower rooms. The good thing is that such decent rest areas were unheard of a few years earlier when a road trip meant bumpy roads through small towns and it is a relief to be able to see such progress in road travel.
Now that I have managed to narrate the merits of the highway without letting too much of sarcasm get in the way, let me tell you what I found really dangerous - our beloved fellow countrymen, who without a care for their precious lives, would ride on the wrong side of the road in order to cut across to the town lanes without having to travel an extra kilometer or two and take a U turn. First it was the cyclists then it was the Ape autos and then I saw huge Lorries doing the same. Imagine doing that without headlights at dusk. And who, for God's sake, thought of pedestrian crossing (zebra lines) on highways?
I'd love to do the road trip to Bangalore more often but I would never want to do it in the dark. Not with freedom loving Indians on the loose.
We took the route via Vellore and easily covered the 290 odd kilometers in 4 hours. It can be done faster; it can even be done slower because there are no badly behaved drivers honking their way past you. The traffic flows smoothly and there is plenty of space for each vehicle to pace itself.
There are three toll booths each of which collect a minimum of Rs.25 for a single trip four-wheeler. We had doled out a 25 - 35 - 25 before we steered clear of tolls. Not all the booths were computerized either. Reliance has a few petrol bunks near Hosur, not all of them operational, with a refreshment counter (maybe you can call it a fast food place) and pretty decent restrooms and shower rooms. The good thing is that such decent rest areas were unheard of a few years earlier when a road trip meant bumpy roads through small towns and it is a relief to be able to see such progress in road travel.
Now that I have managed to narrate the merits of the highway without letting too much of sarcasm get in the way, let me tell you what I found really dangerous - our beloved fellow countrymen, who without a care for their precious lives, would ride on the wrong side of the road in order to cut across to the town lanes without having to travel an extra kilometer or two and take a U turn. First it was the cyclists then it was the Ape autos and then I saw huge Lorries doing the same. Imagine doing that without headlights at dusk. And who, for God's sake, thought of pedestrian crossing (zebra lines) on highways?
I'd love to do the road trip to Bangalore more often but I would never want to do it in the dark. Not with freedom loving Indians on the loose.
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