BHPian raviemailid recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Rant Alert! I did Bangalore-Chennai round trip drive on 19-20 Sep and if I have to describe my experience in one word, it was ‘Horrendous’. This experience, coupled with the terrible Pune-Bangalore highway experience I had 2 months ago, I am beginning to give up on hope of us having European or Chinese/Japanese type roads ever in India. Lets talk about the Bangalore-Chennai only in this post. Here is my trip log: Day 1: Bangalore Chennai (19 Sep) I started at 7:50 AM from Bangalore, full of optimism, thinking the morning drive would set the tone. That optimism didn’t last long. The moment I hit ORR, reality struck – it took me nearly 90 minutes just to crawl my way to Hoskote. By then, the day’s patience quota was already running low. Stopped for breakfast at Nalapaka restaurant after the toll for 30 mins and kept thinking about losing so much time to sheer city congestion. After that the BCE stretch was good and I was at V’Kota crossing in no time. From there onwards, the drive to Pallikonda felt less like a highway and more like a procession of two-wheelers, autos, and tempos weaving around aimlessly. Chaos everywhere, no sense of controlled access – just “anything goes” traffic. A coffee + charging stop at CCD near Pallikonda (25 mins) gave me some respite, but the road ahead was a patchwork of diversions and occasional good stretches. I stopped at McDonalds near Attuputhur for lunch at around 2pm for 40 mins or so. Google, trying to be helpful, rerouted me through Attuputhur-Uthukadu-Vandalur for my remainder of the journey, which did save me from the Sriperumbudur nightmare. But then Chennai city traffic took over, and by the time I rolled into Thiruvanmiyur, it was 5:30 PM. Nearly 10 hours on the road, with more frustration than progress. Day 2: Chennai Bangalore (20 Sep) The return wasn’t any kinder. Started from Novotel OMR around 1:30pm after a stupid billing issue that took an hour to fix. Exiting Chennai was surprisingly manageable, and I took the same Vandalur-Uthukadu-Attuputhur road and had lunch at the same McD at around 3:10pm for 40 mins. Once I hit the highways, the diversions returned with a vengeance. Long queues, trucks crawling at a snail’s pace, everyone bunching up in single lanes – it was a test of patience. This was still fine compared to the absolute nightmare stretch after Pallikonda. Crossing Gudiyatham, V’kota, and every single village in between took me over 3 hours of painful zig-zagging through unruly traffic. By the time I hit BCE, it felt like stepping into a different country altogether. Smooth, fast, effortless – the way an intercity highway should be. I continued further after BCE to STRR, it was 8pm and after the onward ORR craziness, STRR seemed a lot more sane option. Upon exit, Google forced me off at Kannamangla and sent me through Devanahalli town before joining NH44. Isn’t there an exit near Nandi Hills or directly to NH44? If not then honestly, what’s the point of an STRR if it still dumps you into city traffic. My Rant: I’ve been driving on highways for close to 14 years now. My first proper long run was back in 2011 – Chennai Rameshwaram Kanyakumari. Since then, from Bangalore or Chennai, I’ve driven to Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, and of course countless places around BLR/CHN. In those early years, I kept telling myself the same thing: “India is building highways, the experience will get better soon.” Sadly, it never really did. If anything, I’d say it’s deteriorated. Last October, I drove to Kolkata for the 5th time in a decade. And honestly, it was the worst run yet. The patches of Tirupati-Naidupeta, Nellore-Ongole, Vijayawada-Rajahmundry, entire Odisha, Kharagpur-Kolaghat made the whole driving experience terrible. On my recent Ahmedabad-Bangalore run, even the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, the so-called crown jewel, had cement blocks breaking apart and under repair before it’s even fully opened. The once-beautiful Hampi-Chitradurga stretch? Riddled with construction and repair patches when I drove it two months ago. So when I now spend 9-10 hours of pure frustration just to cover Bangalore-Chennai – thanks to an “expressway” that’s been under construction for 4+ years – it’s hard to stay optimistic about things ever improving. I mean, seriously – driving between two of India’s biggest metros should not feel like an endurance test. Yet here we are – battling town traffic, diversions, and chaos that makes you wonder: if this is the condition between Bangalore and Chennai, how on earth will Tier-2 cities ever develop proper connectivity? And bigger picture – with this kind of Africa-grade infrastructure, how do we even dream of competing with China? We may talk about high-speed trains, smart cities, and EV revolutions, but if a simple drive between two metros takes 9-10 hours of mental torture, we’re just fooling ourselves. The only silver lining of this trip was the EQS580. Effortless power, supreme comfort – it made sure I didn’t arrive at either end completely drained. Without it, I don’t think I’d have survived this circus. (Sorry for reflection on pictures) Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
