Weekend Drive from Bangalore to Chennai via BCE: Route, Timings & Tips

In brief - already for the early morning start, the BCE seems to save about 1 hour in end-to-end travel.

BHPian binand recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I drove to Chennai and back over the weekend via the expressway.

For the last 2-3 trips (pre-BCE days) I have been taking Chittoor-Thiruthani-Thiruvallur as a more peaceful alternative to the regular Ranipet-Sriperumbudur-Poonamallee NH 48 route. With the BCE in the mix my concern was how to connect to it. Looked like (from this thread) most everyone was going V. Kote-Palamneru-Chittoor-Ranipet or V. Kote-Gudiyattam-Vellore and onwards via the NH 48. After some Google-surfing I decided to take V. Kote-Gudiyattam-Katpadi-Vallimalai-Sholingur-Thiruthani.

Started the journey at 4 AM from Bangalore. Hoskote toll was crossed at 5 AM and at 7 AM I was at Katpadi and looking for possible breakfast places (hint: there are none). I set CC to 100 kmph on the BCE and it was a short, 45-minute drive. Everything felt perfect - expansion joints were smooth, the big L curve at Hoskote was well-designed, road signage and reflectors/cats-eyes were all in place and working, road lighting was ample, exits were marked and numbered.

During the return I again started from Chennai at 4 AM. This time I came via Pallikonda-Gudiyattam to see what I was missing - but it is a disaster. Eventually entered the BCE at 9.20 AM and exited it at 9.55 AM (I made a note of the times). 69 km in 35 minutes I thought was excellent - this time CC was set to 120 kmph.

In brief - already for the early morning start, the BCE seems to save about 1 hour in end-to-end travel. With the full thing in place - which in my mind is BCE connecting to Chittoor–Thatchur road connecting to one of Chennai PRR (for north Chennai) or to Chennai-Surat expressway (for south Chennai) - we can expect even more reduction in time.

Gudiyattam has a bypass from V. Kote side to Katpadi side, with junctions for the roads leading to Palamneru and Chittoor. Nothing for the road to Pallikonda though.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.