How do i get in to Mangalore?

By Plane

Mangalore has an international airport situated at Bajpe, about 30 kms from the city centre. Currently there are daily flights to Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai (with a stop in Bangalore) in the domestic segment and weekly/bi-weekly flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat (Oman), Doha (Qatar) and Bahrain in the international segment. Alliance Air (a subsidiary airline of Indian - one of the national carriers), Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, Air Deccan and Air India Express currently operate flights to Mangalore. The Chennai-Mangalore route is served by Kingfisher airlines

By Train

Mangalore has two big railway stations. The Mangalore station is at Hampankatta, in the heart of the city. It is a terminus.

Kankanady is the other station. It is situated about 5 to 10 kilometres from the centre of the city. It is on the Konkan railway track and connects Mangalore to Goa and Mumbai in the north and to Kerala in the south. Trains from Mangalore going north have to pass through Kankanady.

Surathkal is a suburb of Mangalore, about 20 kilometres from the heart of the city along the National Highway 17. It has a railway station that is about 0.5 kilometres from the Surathkal bus-stand. Passengers arriving from north of Mangalore usually prefer to alight at Surathkal and take a bus to the city. This is because trains usually get held up in traffic between Surathkal and Mangalore.

By Bus

There are two bus-stands in Mangalore for long-distance bus services.

• One is the state-run KSRTC bus-stand in Bejai, located towards the North of the city, but not far off from the city centre. The bus-services are run by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. They operate scheduled bus services to Mumbai, Bangalore, Mysore, Goa, Hubli-Dharwad and many other areas within and outside Karnataka. Services run by the Kerala State Transport and Tamil Nadu State Transport and Andhra pradesh state road Transportation also call in Mangalore at this very bus-stand.

• The other one is behind the Town Hall. It is known as the 'State Bank' stand by the locals, because of its proximity to a branch of the State Bank of India. It is the last stop for most of the private bus services to Mangalore (mostly Inter-District viz. Mangalore-Udupi and Inter-taluk buses).

• There is a third bus-stand (not exactly a bus-stand but an alighting point for passengers) in front of Milagres Church - where most private tour and bus operators - Ideal Travels, Canara, Canara-Pinto, Vishal Travels, Anand Travels, VRL etc. have their offices. They operate buses of semi-deluxe, sleeper and Volvo types to various destinations viz. Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa, Thrissur, Hubli-Dharwad etc.

• Various other pick-up points and drop points are there in Mangalore city according to your convenience!

There are numerous bus services from Mangalore to all the nearby towns in Karnataka and Kerala. The long-distance bus services to major cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Hubli-Dharwad and Goa run along the National Highways radiating to the North (towards Goa and Mumbai) - NH-17, South (towards Kerala) and the East (towards Bangalore) - NH-48. The thumb-rule for bus fares is about 60% of the distance in kilometres. For example, it would cost Rs. 60 to travel a distance of 100 kilometres.

By Car

Mangalore is well connected to the rest of North India (Goa, Mumbai, etc.) and Kerala via National Highway-17 (Mumbai-Kerala highway) and the state capital Bangalore (via National Highway-48 which traverses a considerable amount of the Western Ghats). Highways are only two-laned - very narrow. There is a lot of heavy traffic load on the highways owing to the increasing number of buses plying on these routes, as well as a lot of goods-transport trucks owing to the location of many plants and factories as well as New Mangalore Port on NH-17. So exercise caution while driving during period of heavy traffic. Take it for granted that only the toughest vehicles will survive, as the kind of pot holes you will see will make the surface of Mars seem like a picnic.

NH-17 from Sakleshpur to Mangalore, which had been completely unmotorable thanks to government apathy, is now repaired and somewhat motorable. Work is going on to convert NH-17 into a four-lane highway. Until they do this, one needs to go to Mangalore from Bangalore either through the potentially dangerous Charmadi Ghat road, or via the equally pathetic Mysore-Madikeri-Suliya route.