I travelled through the sakleshpur ghat section many a times in the past 2-1.5 yrs and have seen it go from bad to worse. A patch of 50-60 kms is a nightmare through which one cannot drive over 10kmph at any given point of time.
The last time when I travelled in my car I took the trusted but bad road again and much to my surprise the road is in quite a good shape, thanks to the road construction that was in progress. there was just a patch of 8-12 kms that was still not tarred but was drivable. I’m sure this would be completely laid down by now and driving through this ghat made a pleasure. I covered bangalore to mangalore in just 5.5hrs with a 40mins break. And i’m sure for once even my maruti esteem felt good with the roads being upgraded. Just hope that the coming monsoons dont play a spoilt by destroying the lovely black carpet.
All in all, road through the sakleshpur ghat section is good and very much drivable now. So go ahead and hit the gas pedal !!
Suhrid Pathrore