Travel
information in Chennai
Air
From Madras there are direct inter-national flights to and from New York, London, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. There are also flights all over India. At Meenambakkam Airport, 17 km southwest of the city center, there are two terminals- one international and the other domestic, about a minute walk apart.
There is also an airport bus that goes to the major hotels ending at Egmore Station. The suburban train from Egmore Station stops at Trisulam station, which is about half a km from the airport. This train is often packed.
Air India flies to New York, London, Singapore, Kuwait and Kuala Lumpur; British Airways flies to London; Singapore Airlines to Singapore; and Malaysian Airlines to Kuala Lumpur.
There are several daily flights to Bombay and Delhi, and a few flights daily to Bangalore, Calcutta, Coimbatore, and Hyderabad. There are daily flights to Tiruchirappalli (Srirangam), Madurai,and Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum).There are three flights weekly to Pune, Visakapatnam and Mangalore, and two flights weekly to Bhubaneshwar.
Rail
There are two train stations in Madras. Madras Central is bigger and is connected with most of the major Cities in India from the north, east, west, and a few southern cities. From Madras Egmore, metre gauge trains depart to cities all over the south. Both stations are on Periyar EVR High Rd.
The reservation office at Madras Central is on the upper floor of the building next to the station. There is a "Tourist Cell" that handles tourist quota bookings and Indrail Passes. It is a useful office, but you must purchase tickets with foreign currency. It sells tickets for trains that depart from either station. In this same reservation office you can make reservations for trains that originate in Calcutta, Delhi, Jaipur, Bombay, Ahmedabad, and many other places (at different counters). The booking office at Egmore Station, up the stairs from the main entrance, has no tourist counter. There is a Railway Booking Counter at the airport.
Madras has very good rail connections. From Egmore, the Rameswaram Express goes to Rameswaram via Triuchirappalli. The overnight Sethu Express goes to Rameswaram in 15 1/2 hours. To Madurai, the Mail goes overnight in 11 1/2 hours and the fast Vaigai Express takes eight hours via Tiruchirappalli. Trains also depart from Egmore to go to Thanjavur and Chidambaram.
Most other trains leave from Central. There are two express trains a day to Delhi-the Tamil Nadu Exp and the Grand Trunk Exp. The Dadar Madras Exp goes to Bombay in 27 hours. The Coromandel Exp goes to Calcutta in 28 hr. the Ganga Kaveri Exp goes to varanasi in 39 hours. The Trivandrum Mail goes to Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) in 17 hours. The Lalbagh Exp and Brindavan Exp go to Bangalore in about 6 hours. The fully A/C Shatabdi Exp takes just five hours to get to Bangalore. The Charminar Exp goes to Hyderabad. The fast Shatabdi Exp goes to Mysore daily except Tuesday.
There are two trains a day to Tirupati-the Saptagiri Exp and the Madras Tirupati Exp. Sometimes in the busy season the tourist quotas can be totally used up for a train to Calcutta from Madras and you may not be able to get a train for a week. You could take a train to Tirupati and book a train for the next day, as there is a direct train from there to Bhubaneswara and Calcutta.
Bus
There are two long-distance bus stations in Madras-Thiruvalluvar and Broadway-opposite each other, in George Town, by the High Court building off NSC Bose Rd. The Tamil Nadu state bus company, also called the Thiruvalluvar Transport Corporation (TTC), has a reservation office upstairs where you can book in advance for most places. The booking office is open daily. You can get the Bus Route Guide & Map at the enquiry office downstairs. It has a good map of Tamil Nadu and a detailed schedule of the Thiruvalluvar bus routes.
Thiruvalluvar mainly serves just Tamil Nadu. Broadway station has buses to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. You can also get a direct bus from Madras to Ahovalam (12 hr) via Tirupati from here. The terminal is chaotic, but there are young boys here that will help you get on your bus for a few rupees. You can purchase tickets for some buses at the TNTDC tourist office.
State buses to Mamallapuram (2 1/2 hr, 60 km) leave from Broadway station. The A/B/D and K are faster buses and the # l9C and # 1l9A take a little longer. If you take the #19 and #11 9A along the coast you can get off the bus at the hotels just north of Mamallapuram. From the Mofussil bus stand near Esplanade you take the #19A, #19C, and #68 buses to get to Mamallapuram.
Public buses to Kanchipuram leave from Parry's Corner by the Law Courts where the Esplanade meets First Line Beach. Buses #41 and #76B take two hours, Express buses to Tirupati (#802, 4 hr) depart from the Thiruvalluvar bus station. There are many regulars buses, but they are slow, taking round about routes.
There are private bus companies that have deluxe video buses that go to Madurai, Bangalore, Tiruchirappalli, and other places. They charge about the same price as the state buses, but are more comfortable, except for the noisy video. Their offices are mainly in the Egmore area.
|
