[hisunil]

I wanna do this stretch too, Love water fording, Green pristine routes with very minimal traffic dotted with wildlife too, looks like this route has All to offer, could plan this sometime in Oct end.

Cheers Sunil

[nettooran]

Re-opening an old thread.

Any updates on this route. Does this still exists? Any members here who had gone this route recently?

[gauravanekar]

Any updates? I'm curious

[deerhunter]

This road was closed off by the forest department in 2012. Now, the government has decided to renovate and reopen it. It will serve as a shorter alternate route to Munnar from Kochi.

Link

Public Works and Tourism Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas told the Assembly on Friday that the old Aluva-Munnar road would be reopened to give a boost to tourism.

The distance between Kothamangalam and Munnar is just 60 km along the old road, which was constructed by the erstwhile Travancore royalty. It touches upon Kothamangalam, Thattekkad, Kuttampuzha, Pooyamkutty, Tholnada, Kunchiyaru, Karinthiri, Perumbankuthu, and Mangulam before ending at Munnar.

To read more about the history of this route: Link

The old Aluva-Munnar Road was in existence from 1200 AD and it was relaid by Poonjar Kovilakom to access Kanan Devan Hills in 1877.

It was used by the native people to transport agricultural goods and sandal wood to Old Muziris port.

"Later, the British took over the Kanan Devan Hills on lease to cultivate tea coffee and cardamom. In 1880, the British relaid the road and constructed culverts and bridges to facilitate smooth transport of hill produce to the Cochin Port. The road has 15m to 50m width and is motorable even now,” he said.

Around half-a-km stretch of the road at Karinthiri section was damaged during the great deluge in 1924. From Perumbankuthu to Munnar, the road passes through Mankulam and Viripara which are inhabited areas.

The forest department has objected to the opening of the road as it passes through 10km of reserve forest from Pooyamkutty to Peendimedu.

In 1981, KSEB had relaid the road for the construction of Pooyamkutty hydro electric project.

However, the project was abandoned and in 2012, Kuttampuzha range officer closed the road denying entry to the public. As per revenue records the road comes under the works department.

[anoopelias]

The new KSRTC Jungle Safari tries to cover this route in partial.