+ More about Nandi Hills in an earlier post
I made a quick early morning visit to Nandi Hills last week, looking for monsoon-like weather. Even when Bangalore remains clear and sunny, the hills around Nandi Betta tend to remain cloudy and foggy, creating a magical local weather. Visibility tends to drop, and it can get cold and windy. A few friends had gone a week before and had walked through a blanket of flag even as late as 11am. We must have reached there at about 6.30am, and the weather was much different. I could see low-lying clouds moving through the sky, sometime brushing past Nandi and sometimes resting on the hill for a few minutes. It never remained foggy for long, but clouds kept coming and going, changing the way the world looked every five minutes. One time we could see the range of hills in the neighbourhood and another time we could barely see 50m. Here are two pictures of the extremes.
Clear weather. Shot on the way to Nandi Betta. My guess is that the hill in the picture is Skandagiri. Can anyone confirm?
This is how it looked when fog moved in.
Researching on the remains of the Hoysala Kingdom, I have visited some remarkable works of architecture in the last two months. Belur and Halebeedu, of course, shine when it comes to fine craftsmanship and in mastery of the the artist on the stones. Nothing I have seen comes anywhere close to the details etched into every stone in these temples. But surrounding these famed temples are many less known beautiful places that charmed me to no end. They may not match the flagship temples in artist’s accomplishment, but the atmosphere they are located in and the structural simplicity of these places brought me into a state of awe and filled me with admiration. Each of these is a place worth spending an infinite amount of time soaking in its environ and merging with the place. And of all those places I discovered, nothing moved me like the small tank at Hulikere did. I will not get into an exercise of playing with words describing it, but will leave you with a picture.
Hulikere is one of the places we are covering as part of the Tour of Less Known Hoysala Kingdom. Lakshmi and I have been working on it for sometime now, researching on locations and on the history of the Hoyslas. We did a trial run which turned out to be a runaway success; we will be going live soon, await more details.
A Brief about the road
The Bangalore – Mysore Expressway being built by NICE (Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise) has been a subject of many controversies for almost a decade. After a change in the state government a year ago, NICE managed to get past the official hurdles and make some progress with road construction. The project includes building a peripheral road around the city, connecting all the highways with Bangalore – Mysore expressway. The peripheral road is nearly complete, and is already in use. NICE collects a toll to use the road.
My Experience
I was driving back to town from Hassan on a weekday evening. I live in South Bangalore (JP Nagar) and was entering the city from the opposite direction. The thought of having to get into the city and wade through evening traffic was bothering me. I vaguely recalled a friend mentioning that NICE road is an alternate option. On spotting a sign, I decided to take it. If I had driven through the city from this place, it would have been nearly 25km to my place. Considering the peak hour traffic, it would have taken 2 to 2.5 hours get home.
I entered the road at 7.10pm after paying a toll of Rs.50. It is built as a freeway with no signals, and has flyovers for the crossing traffic wherever necessary. The road is is a smooth road with no obstructions, no humps or such obstacles anywhere on the way. Entire stretch of the road is fenced. There is a dividing lane in the center almost 10m wide, ensuring that you are not troubled by the head lights from the oncoming traffic.
Being new to the road, I did not exceed 80kmph and drove at uniform speed, but it is safe to drive at three-figure speeds. My exit at Kanakapura Road was 25km away, and it was 7.30pm when I reached there. I was at home by 7.45pm.
Conclusion
I saved anything between 90 to 120 minutes by taking NICE road. Besides the saving in time, I also did not have to wade through painful peak hour traffic. The road is safer than it’s alternate options, but it did come with some surprises. I saw a few men walking on the service road in two occasions (which is not that bad), and also encountered a car trying to go in the wrong direction (which can be fatal)!
At Rs.2 per kilometer, it is 3 to 4 times more expensive than Bangalore – Tumkur highway. But for someone who takes the road once in a while to go across the city, it is worth that money for all the time and effort saved. If I were to drive to Mysore regularly when the road is ready, considering that there already is a good road to Mysore, I may not think of paying so much toll very often.