Pune - Kodai - Munnar - Vartala

[highway_lover]

Hello All,
This is my first post on this forum and happy to be here with other automobile lovers and enthusiasts. :) I had the following questions -

- I have 11 days vacation coming up and i was planning to do Pune - Kodaikanal - Munnar - Vartala if possible. I can drop one of the places if it gets hectic.

- I will be driving down in my own car however i was not sure on the routes to take to complete this journey.

- Can you please suggest the best route to take for this journey considering the rains in Chennai last week? I was thinking of Pune - Bangalore - Salem - Dindigul - Kodai - Munnar. But i also saw there is another route from Salem - Avinashi - Udumlapet but not sure which was one is the best one here.

- Any other points that i should be aware of ?

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[vdm295]

Both the routes are ok. The salem - dindigul - kodai route will be a bit shorter but there has been some landslides few days back due to rains. The salem - Coimbatore - udumalpet - palani - kodai route is good till palani. The 60 km uphill road is single & traffic is less. Where as the dindigul kodai road is broader but traffic is heavy.

 

[highway_lover]

Thanks for your reply. Does that mean route between Palani and Kodai is not in good shape?
Also i will be dropping Vartala from the itinerary. Considering, what would be the best and faster way back to Pune?
Any issues that i should be aware of while entering TN with MH number plate ?

 

[vdm295]

The road between palani & kodai are ok. It has some bad streches but it's manageable. From Munnar you have to come to udumalpet which is around 80kms. The roads is single and due to rains its damaged. It would take around 2 to 3 hrs to do that strech & from there the route will be pollachi - Coimbatore - Bangalore - Pune .
There are no issues over here while entering TN with MH registered car. Just have all the original documents with you.

 

[highway_lover]

Thanks that's helpful. Also if you can please let me know how are the roads between Electronic City - Hosur - Salem - Dindigul ?
Also i understand there is traffic between Dindigul and Kodai road but how much time do you think it will take to cover this strech which is of about 95 kms.
Thanks.

 

[vdm295]

The roads are excellent. It's all 4 lane till Dindigul & from there you have to take a diversion to go to kodai. I am not sure about the road condition from dindigul to kodai at present so won't be able to comment on the time taken

 

[hemantp]

I had taken Bangalore - Dindigul - Theni - Munnar in Oct last week and the road quality was excellent (NH7, Munnar Ghat) to good (near Theni) throughout.

After Thekkadi road junction on the way, there were some stretches where road widening work was on so one has to be careful. I actually ended up driving in the late evening and finally had to stop at Devikulam at 8:30 PM as it looked it would rain.

Keep 3 hrs for Theni to Munnar to enjoy the drive.