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-   -   Landslides? Updates on the road to The Nilgiris. (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-travel-queries/69134-landslides-updates-road-nilgiris-5.html)

The weather is fine now.

Masinagudi to Ooty is normal and there should be no problem.

You can include Coonoor and Kotagiri, the only thing is that you would need to take a small diversion off Lovedale to enter Coonoor main road at Yelanhalli.
From Coonoor you can travel to Kotagiri without any problem.
Thanks for your nice gesture, I wouldnt need anything.
All the best with your trip. Have fun.

How is the Gudalur - Nilambur segment? I plan to go there next week.

There is no problem on this route.

Hi Guys,

I am planning to take one-day trip to Ooty tomorrow (07/12/2009).

An urgent trip and I need to come back on the same day.

I am going to start from Salem. Go to Avinashi and take a right on the Avinashi - Coimbatore NH. Traverse Annur and reach Mettupalayam.

On a normal day it wouldn’t take more than 6 hours to reach Ooty but due to the land slides I think it would become really difficult to drive on the ghat roads.

Now my dilemma is that do I take Mettupalayam - Coonoor road or Mettupalayam - Kotagiri road and go to Ooty.

I have few questions:

1. Is the route Mettupalayam to Conoor motorable now?
2. Have they opened Coonoor to Ooty road for public?
3. How is the road condition between Mettupalayam to Kotagiri to Ooty?

Could someone update me on how the road condition is now?

Sorry, I just got to see your message. I was not in town.

1. Mettupalayam- Coonoor road is not open as yet.
2. Coonoor-Ooty Road is open for LMV.
3. The road is good.

Thank you Beejay.

I just finished the trip and posting this message. I started at 5:00 in the morning from Salem and reached Ooty around 10:00 am. A non stop drive with for five hours.

I took Mettupalayam - Kotagiri - Ooty road. Finished the work in Ooty in less than an hour and started around 12:00. Came back to Mettupalayam along the same route but while coming back I wanted to see Doddabetta, so went there and relaxed for a while. This trip brought back my memories of young age where I & my family were staying in Aruvankadu.

Coming to the point, the route from Mettupalayam to Kotagiri and to Ooty is in good condition. Actually I did not except such good roads after reading in newspapers the havoc land slides had created. However Mettupalayam - Kotagiri - Ooty roads are very narrow and not broad like the normal route.

Total KMS covered: 449.7 KMS. This includes more than 100 KMS of driving on steep ghat roads and mainly in 2nd & 3rd gear. I have a hunch that my i10 would have given a mileage of close to 18 KMPL. I am yet to do a full tank. I will post the mileage and the some pics that I had taken.

I am driving to Coonoor & Ketti from Mettupalayam (regarding Laidlaw school pick-up) next Sunday and Monday. Thanks to this thread, I will now drive stress-free knowing the roads are good.

(I expect around 400+ cars to Ketti next Monday for the school alone, so there could be traffic-jams).

I will post my experience after this visit.

Hi Mani,

I am not sure about the road from Mettupalayam to Coonoor. This road is yet to be repaired and no vehicles are allowed on this road.

However you can go to Kotagiri and from there you can go to Coonoor. Right now they are not allowing traffic from Coonoor to Ooty on the conventional road, you may have to take the Coonoor -> old Aruvankadu -> Achaanakkal route to reach Ketti.

But I read on newspaper that one way traffic is allowed from Ooty to Coonoor. That is when you are going from Ooty to Coonoor you could take the conventional route.

Please post your experience/updates once you finish your trip.

I was there 4 days back. The Ooty-->Coonoor highway is open one way, with repair work still going on in some parts. No problem for cars, though. The cops were diverting the Coonoor-->Ooty traffic through narrow by-roads (which are shorter, quite narrow and steep, with bad roads in many parts).

Mettupalayam-Kotagiri roads are normal and superb. Same with Ooty-Gudalur. Kotagiri-Ooty (diverted) roads are good. Not sure about Kotagiri-Coonoor.

Kotagiri to Coonoor is open to traffic and the roads are good.

Just returned from the Nilambur, Gudalur, Masinagudi, Mysore route. Everything seemed fine. Smooth traffic.

I will be driving to Ooty with family towards the end of this month and will go from there to Palakkad via Mettupalayam/Coimbatore. En route I want to check out the more popular spots around Coonoor and Kotagiri like Dolphin's Nose, Sims Park and Kodanad view point. What is the recommended sequence and route considering the prevailing roadblocks?

Ooty - Coonor - Sims park - lambs rock - dolphins nose - kattapattu - kotagiri - kodanadu viewpoint - kotagiri - mettupalayam - coimbatore - palghat.

Thanks, laluks. That's a very useful reply. Can I do it in, say, 4-5 hours?

If you are just seeing around like a tourist :) then -
Sims park, is just another green park -1 hour max
Lambs Rock 30 mins max, some walking involved
Dolphins nose - 30 mins max
Kodanadu viewpoint - 30 mins max



ooty - coonor - 30mins max with deviations if any.
Sims park - lambs rock - dolphin nose - kattapattu - kotagiri - 2.5 hour with ample time to see the places.
kotagiri - kodanadu -kotagiri - 1.5 hours with ample time to see around.

So starting from Ooty in 4.5 hour you can finish all this places and be back at kotagiri.


Kotagiri - Mettupalayam - coimbatore - I do not know. I have not travelled on that route. - X hours
Coimbatore - Palghat can be done in 1 hour.


So I feel 5.5 hours + X