Visit to Goravanahalli Mahalakshmi Temple

On 18-03-2012 I visited Mahalakshmi temple of Goravanahalli. We started around 9 from Bangalore in friend's car and reached  Goravanahalli by 11:30. There was too much rush in the morning. You will enjoy the drive along NH-4 till Dabaspet and the beautiful scenery thereafter. The rocky mountains are beautiful sight to watch. On the way you will also feel the menace of cattle too  so beware while driving. They are so much adamant that it is cumbersome to halt them.

Goravanahalli is around 80kms from Bangalore (majestic). It is located in Koratagere Taluk of Tumkur district. One can take buses  from KR Market(private) or KSRTC bus stand. Direct buses are infrequent however one can catch bus to Koratagere and alight at  Nagenahalli cross before Koratagere and take an auto. The auto is mass transport system i.e. accumulates until auto is full.  It may cost around 15Rs per head. If you need to own an auto, it may cost you more (around 50 may be).

If you plan to go by personal vehicle, one has to take NH-4 route towards Tumkur, enter Dabaspet town (around 10kms before Tumkur. NH-4 runs on top of town)  and take deviation towards right. There are directions, however they are confusing since you will find multiple paths. Ask local people  and they will guide you well. It is about 37kms from Dabaspet. You will enjoy the nature en-route. However the roads barring few kilometers,  are narrow and dug out. Be careful if you are driving for first time. The road till Nelamangala is 6 lane while it is 4 lane thereafter till Dabaspet. You will have to pay separate toll for both roads. For 6 lane take daily pass of Rs.20 if you plan to return on same day. For four lane it is bit confusing. It costs you Rs.29 two way provided you do not cross Tumkur. The second toll booth was really confusing.

Do not miss the fresh vegetables  on the way especially radish and carrot. They look really good. You can find fresh items near the temple too. After around 30kms  past Dabaspet you need to observe for sign boards towards right. From there follow sign boards for nearly 6kms to reach the temple.

Since it was rush we took special entrance ticket for Rs.25 per head. I am not sure about the mythology behind the temple. Lots of  people do visit here. The temple and surroundings are well maintained. Also free afternoon meals are served from 11:00AM to 4:00PM.  Few meters away, you can visit Teeta Reservoir whose water is used for agricultural purpose by local people. We could find considerable water here  but not much since it was summer. Here are some pictures taken during visit. There was nice sunset too. I hope I captured at-least good snap not the best.

SRI MAHALAKSHMI TEMPLE

TEETA RESERVOIR

CATTLE

GORAVANAHALLI SUNSET

CLOSE-UP SUNSET

Bike ride to Nandi-Hills

This was on 14-Feb-2010 when myself and friend decided to visit Nandi-Hills. I was visiting for the first time and also first time having long bike ride. Of-course I was pillion since I neither had two-wheeler nor I knew to ride bike. The bike was XCD-135. So it was wonderful ride covering NH-7 and small highway leading to Nandi-Hills. The up hill way is narrow, however cleanly laid. The curves had wider roads where four wheelers could negotiate smoothly. Total distance was around 70kms. It was clear day but nice weather since summer was yet to begin. There were lot people too visiting the place since it was sunday Place is good for trekking too I suppose. This place was also used by tippu-sultan during summer I feel.

You can find many more things here. It is just nature to watch here and roam around. There is also guest house here however need to book rooms in advance. People are not allowed after some time in evening except who have booked guest house. This is precautionary measure to prevent suicides which was frequent in early days. The sunrise and sunset is beautiful to watch. However we did not stay there till evening since we almost covered everything by afternoon. It was around 2:30 when we reached bangalore back.

The first part of video is bike ride which includes NH-7 and riding uphill. The second part is collection of photos taken in and around hilly area. The up-hilling part is 3.5x fast-forwarded to accommodate more content.

Hope you will enjoy the video!

MUSIC: FLOATATION BY ULRICH SCHNAUSS

Travel to KAUP from BANGALORE at night in SWIFT DIESEL

This is one of the older videos however composed recently. We went to kaup from bangalore at night on 04 Oct 2011. This is the first time I traveled at night in a private vehicle. I was awake till Gundya and later on could not resist sleep. So the video contains clips till gundya and later on no videos were shot. It was really amazing drive. The car was swift diesel and this was first time I really felt torque of diesel cars. The car was also very smooth and you never feel even if you are driving around 100kmph. We could easily cover the journey in 8hrs despite the horrible shiraadi ghat road and one hour break near kunigal where we had dinner. Hope you will enjoy the video!

Of-course video is bit noisy since it was shot at night. It is quite lengthy video too. I kept it lengthy to cover entire journey in a single video. The car is owned by my colleague's friend and he drove along entire journey. Please watch for entire duration when you get time. I have used three music for the video.

1) Ulrich Schnauss - A million miles away
2) Ulrich Schnauss - Monday Paracetamol
3) Linkin Park - In the End

I know I have been using first two are being used repeatedly in my videos. However I do not find alternatives even. Suggest me if you have good travel tune.

The video was edited and composed using KDENLIVE under XUBUNTU. Wonderful open source tool for video editing and composing.


Watch my other videos too: http://www.youtube.com/user/nakumar85/videos

Tracking Bangalore-Hassan direct rail line project

I and my friend went for joy ride towards newly laid four lane along NH-48 on 12-Feb-2012. In mid of journey my friend recalled the Bangalore-Hassan rail line construction project that is under progress. The project currently has stopped near Solur which is 18 kms from Nelamangala. From Bangalore to Nelamangala the rail line is already in place.

JALAHALLI CROSS ELEVATED HIGHWAY

4 LANED NELAMANGALA-MANGALORE HIGHWAY

Let me brief on the project. Bangalore to Hassan has multiple rail routes. However all of them are lengthy routes. The first one is via Mysore and the other one via Tumkur. The road way is direct route via Nelamangala and Kunigal. The Bangalore-Hassan direct rail line project is also on the same lines as road to connect Hassan in a shortest path. The rail path from Shravanabelagola to Hassan is completed while from Nelamangala to Shravanabelagola new rail line has to be laid out.

So what is the use? This basically gives faster rail access to Mangalore. The journey from Bangalore to Mangalore will be matter of 7-8 hrs. Current time duration is 12hrs via Mysore and 10-11hrs via Tumkur. Faster access to port city means, faster goods transport. This also saves money for railways as well as vendors who directly or indirectly depend on port facilities. It also saves time for people who are commuting en-route. This also reduces congestion along Tumkur as well as Mysore rail links. The section of rail line is also highly profitable since it connects port city and capital city in faster manner. Also the fares are very minimal in railways.

What is the progress? As per railways standard! Lethargic, as always. The progress is only in terms of earth work and that too some patch work in between. We saw that there was no progress after Solur except awkward dig-up. Some of the works in between like a bridge near Nelamangala is still not complete. Also in most of the places the civil equipments were not seen. Here are some pictures of the project.

ABANDONED WORK NEAR SOLUR

RAIL LINE RUNS PARALLEL TO NH-75 NEAR SOLUR

Only in some areas civil work was progressing. The work is not even properly commenced from Nelamangala. It is really sad that railways is so much lethargic on this new rail line. South-Westrern railway is one of the profit making division under railways and even then railways is giving a step-motherly treatment to this line.

COMPLETED EARTH WORK NEAR SOLUR

ONE MORE VIEW OF COMPLETED WORK

WE RODE ALONG THE RAIL LINE

MINOR BRIDGE

ABANDONED WORK

CIVIL WORK NEAR LAKE PROGRESSING

Why is this? There are basically few main points

1) Bus-Lobby: The major show-stopper is bus lobby. There are hundreds of buses running from Bangalore to coastal areas of Karnataka. If a direct train runs, it will have large impact on their business.

2) Land-acquisition: This can be major hurdle too. However railways do not require much area other than stations. It can be sorted out amicably unless residential areas occur in between.

3) Political-Influence: The people representatives of the entire region also seemed to have no interest on the project. This may be direct influence of (1) stated above. It is also believed that some are owners of buses too which makes it impossible to have their attention.

4) Funding: Railways are not funding properly too. Every year project cost is increasing however the fund allocated is far too less for the project. This is again direct result of (3) which is related to (1)

5) Lack of Interest: People or press also seemed to have interest in these matters. The press which always breaks unnecessary news never bothers to broadcast people friendly reports. If at all the press had an active role, the project would have completed far early.

When will the project be commissioned? As per the current progress, it may take more than 50 years!! People will have to really come forward to accelerate the project. While coming back we were very much annoyed to see the progress. We went along some of the rail paths too. The earth work seems to be good however has seen many rainy days since it was completed (we could see long grasses). Some rail lines are very close to NH-48. This is also bad idea keeping in mind that future the path may be 6-laned [Forget doubling of rail line :-)]

Thanks to smart phone of my friend because of which we could access even corner roads and locations using google maps. That really helps if you have healthy mobile network in the area. The maps guided properly along state highway as well as in village roads along the construction path. We did not take any help from villagers for traversing the path. The google map is pretty much accurate and up to date!