Road route update on NH7 between Bangalore and Madurai

This is a status update on the condition of NH7 between Bangalore and Madurai as on end of August 2009. This is an info that every one looks out for before setting out on travel (on their own).

When compared to my previous ride on the same route last year (Dec 2008), the road conditions have improved a lot ie., a longer stretch has now been upgraded to 4 lanes and partially complete work have now been fully done.

Bangalore -> Hosur ==> Well, I don't see any useful improvement on this route. There is lot of bridges being constructed until Electronic city and the traffic is a paid anyways. Not a big stretch, so acceptable.

Hosur -> Krishnagiri ==> Bliss. You will soon forget the kind of trouble that Bangalore->Hosur route gave you. But heavy vehicles occupying both the lanes and trying to overtake each other at 20kmph is unavoidable. Just sit on the horn for sometime until they leave way for you.

Krishnagiri -> Salem ==> Toll gate at Krishnagiri!! Pay the toll and enjoy the ride; the roads are still so good. 100-120kmph easily almost all the time. Dharmapuri enroute goes unnoticed in the quality of roads now. Note: Watch for few one ways/under construction lanes. Yes, I remember few, but are very few.

Salem -> Namakkal ==> Toll gate at Thoppur (just before Salem). Remember to take the Salem by-pass and remember that even the by-pass might look like a city; so never get into the city and think you are on the by-pass.. confused enough? This stretch has improved a lot since my previous ride. I didn't see any issue and was very pleasant. From this point, always be cautious about one ways; you might get redirected once in a while.

Namakkal -> Karur ==> I remember a toll gate somewhere around here. Not sure of the exact location. It was just opening on the day I traveled. I can't tell you the joy I had when I was stopped at the toll gate and was let go without paying anything, saying 'it is opening only from midnight Sir!' :) Good roads, but watch out for one/two redirections.

Karur -> Dindigul ==> This stretch isn't complete yet. The roads are coming up, so you get to ride on one side of the road most times. Specially when you are on the wrong lane (driving on the right side of the highway), make sure to switch on your head lights and put it on "high-beam". Some drivers on high-ways literally sleep!! There was one more toll gate coming up, but this isn't going to open up for now, given the condition of the roads. Use this stretch to relax and do not try to maintain the speeds you did sometime back.

Dindigul -> Madurai ==> This stretch is around 60kms. I am surprised to see that this stretch is gone from nothing to near complete in the last one year. This route is almost totally done till Cholavandhan (~15-20kms away from Madurai). After this point, there is literally no space to get a 4 lane highway into Madurai. I don't see any work happening towards Madurai. So, if you are going to the Madurai city (or not going via Virudhunagar), you need to bite this bullet. This is road is the same old road between Madurai and Dindigul; it's pretty narrow and on peek times, there is almost no way to overtake. Better be patient; dangerous curves.

That said, I think there is a by-pass from Madurai towards Virudhunagar,Trinelveli that starts right after Cholavandhan. There is no traffic allowed in, at the moment but that might be the idea. Coming on NH7, and going through Madurai towards Trinelveli, Kanyakumari would make no sense, given the traffic. And if you are going towards Trichy,Chennai from Dindigul via Madurai, may God save you!! (the ideal route is Dindigul->Trichy->Chennai). If you are reaching Rameshwaram via Madurai, you have a whole city to go through. There is not much that can be done here. The by-pass is way too long to consider.

All in all, Bangalore -> Madurai stretch on NH7 is becoming better and better !!

Car tyre pressure for long drives

I recently went for a long drive (450kms) at a single stretch. I had the usual question of 'how much air pressure do I inflate in my car's tyres?'. This is the first time I was going all alone for such a long distance, so I decided to understand a bit more about air pressure and do the right thing.

In the Internet, there was no good summary of what is the right thing. I read a number of forums and articles, before I believed I understood. Let me explain a few basics of air pressure so you understand better. It is a well known fact these two external factors affect the tyre pressure:

1. Car's running time: If the car is on the move, the air pressure increases (possibly due to the collision between the air molecules, as they spin at a good speed). So it is generally advised not to fill up air after driving for quite some distance (>2km?) -- because by the time one reaches the petrol bunk the air pressure would have gone up by few psi's (a unit of measurement of tyre's air pressure). If there is no other means, then it is advised to leave the car at rest for appropriate amount of time before filling up air (this is mostly impractical). OR fill up few psi's (2?) more than what you intend, to account for the expansion.

2. Ambient temperature: This is straight forward. Air expands on heating -- thus the pressure inside the tyre is proportional to the temperature. So it is advised to fill up air in the morning or in the evening when the temperature has cooled down a bit. This is the right thing because, the recommended air pressure is always the "minimum" air pressure that is recommended for the tyres for that load. This is why the values change from car to car even if the tyre properties are the same. The maximum pressure a tyre can withstand is usually embossed on the tyre itself (usually in the range of 44 psi, in India).

Based on all these facts, during a long drive, it makes sense to expect the tyre pressure to increase heavily. As a result a common misconception is to fill up few psi's less than the recommended. Unfortunately, there is a logical explanation that supports the common misconception -- I had a similar opinion earlier. However it turns out that this is "wrong". At reduced air pressure, the area of the tread that is in contact with the road increases -- this gives better comfort, but poorer handling of the vehicle. Due to the increase in the area of contact, the heat generated at the tread increases -- at a long run, this leads to a faster wear and tear of the tyre tread and poor control. An already worn out tyre might even burst at high speeds -- not to mention what happens to the driver.

To add to it, when I reached home (after 450kms) and measured my tyre pressure again (if you don't have a tool, get one for long drives), 2 psi had vanished from all my tyres!!! Now, this also means that on a long drive, due to the pressure on tyre (bumps and jumps), the air had also leaked gradually (all 4 tyres of mine are brand new and also have nozzle caps, nothing to suspect on the tyres). Watch out, so you don't go below the recommended pressure mid way of your drive.

Usually the recommended air pressure is much lesser than the max pressure the tyre can withstand (for eg., for my car, the max tyre pressure is 44 psi, and the recommended is around 30 psi) -- so on a long drive it is advised to inflate the tyre to a few psi's more than the recommended, for the reasons mentioned above. I had inflated to 34 psi for this drive.

Understand, inflate and have a safe drive!!

Disclaimer: That said, I am not responsible if there is any unexpected event due to the increased pressure. Use your own conscience to validate the info above.

Car wash in Bangalore

It is actually surprising that there are (almost) no car wash centers readily available in Bangalore. I searched the net and enquired with my friends and colleagues -- but the answer is just the same. It would actually be a good business to start a professional car wash center in Bangalore.

The only one decent car wash center (as of this writing) is the SLV Car wash center, South End road (Old Kanakapura road), Basavanagudi, Bangalore (near Caritor office). If you drive from South-end circle on the south-end road, at the first intersection, on your right is this place. There is a huge board saying 'Car bath' :)

I've been using their service for quite sometime and am reasonably happy with them. The charges are little on the higher side though. They charge Rs. 225 (earlier Rs.200) for small sized cars (like Indica, zen, alto, swift etc.,) and Rs. 300 for SUV sized cars (like scorpio, safari etc.,) The wash includes exterior and interior cleaning.

The sequence of cleaning goes like this:

1. While the car is in queue for the body wash, they would bring a mobile vacuum cleaner and clean the interiors; the floor mats will be taken out for washing separately.
2. Before the car reaches the body wash place, the interiors will be all set.
3. Then they wash the car with pressurized water (they have provision to even wash under the chassis of the car).
4. They clean the tyres (no they don't remove them) with soap water.
5. Now the car is driven into the automatic wash drive bay. The auto-wash first sprays pressurized water all over the car; then a lot of soap oil; then under heavy pressure water cleans it off. For the first time, it's fun to watch the machine doing it.
6. As the car is driven out of the auto wash area, there is a blower which blows hot air to dry up the car faster; with its aid, the workers manually wipe out the water from the car's body.
7. Meanwhile, the glass, side-view mirrors are cleaned and the floor mats are put back in place and the car is all set for delivery.

All in all I like their work. If there is heavy crowd, they tend to mess-up (like, this time they had put back the floor mats of another car; fortunately I figured out before delivery). Overall the wash is semi-automatic. Even if the interiors are not so neatly done by chance (you can stand with them while they do it if you need it perfectly done), the exterior wash is really good. Nothing can escape from their near 4 times wash with pressurized water. Weekends are usually crowded. They spend around 20-25 mins per car. On an average be ready to spend at least an hour there (including the waiting time). Weekday's early morning might be a better slot.