BHPian Katryks recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Did a round trip from Bengaluru to Mantralayam last week. The road condition is good till Gooty and that’s when the horror begins. I don’t use Google Maps till I reach Gooty. After Gooty, I always put Gooty-Adoni route on the map and then the bypass road to reach Yemignur & Mantralayam. You will be routed through a village route if you put Gooty-mantralayam on the maps as it will take you through one of most horrendous roads in AP. This route will bypass Adoni. On my return, I took the Mantralayam-Ballari-Hiriyur-Bengaluru route. This route is about 60Kms more but takes the same time to reach Bengaluru. The road is generally good between Mantralayam to Adoni. You will take about 15-20 Mins to cross the city. The road is pretty good (NH 167) till the KA-AP border. The road in fact improves the moment you cross AP. The road from AP border to Ballari is a SH ( SH 132) . You will again encounter traffic at Ballari city as you have to drive through the entire city to exit. The road from Ballari to Hiriyur (NH 150A) is one of the most scenic and the tarmac is excellent. There is a small strech of 1 Km after we exit Ballari where we re-enter AP. That stretch is bad as the flyover is being built for 2-3 years. Guess some land acquisition issue. The road from Hiriyur to Bengaluru is the usual NH 48. I covered the entire distance of 438 Kms in 7 hours to reach home in Basavanagudi, the same time I took to cover via Gooty. Would strongly recommend the Hiriyur-Ballari route especially if you are in the west/southern part of the city. Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.