Travel · Roads · 6 min read

The Gap Road: Kerala's Most Dramatic Drive, from Munnar to Bodimettu

Below Devikulam, the Kochi–Dhanushkodi highway squeezes through a gap in the mountains, with sheer rock above and the valley of Chinnakanal far below. The views, the road's troubled widening, and how to drive it safely.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

Leave Munnar by the road to Devikulam, climb past the tea estates and the lake below Devikulam town, and soon the road swings round a shoulder of the mountain into a different world. On one side, a wall of bare rock rises straight up into the clouds. On the other, the land drops away into a vast green bowl: the tea estates of Chinnakanal and Suryanelli, the silver thread of the Periyakanal falls, the distant gleam of the Anayirangal reservoir, and ridge behind ridge fading towards Tamil Nadu. This is the Gap Road, and on a clear day it is one of the most breathtaking drives in India.

The gap in the mountains

The road takes its name from the natural gap through which it crosses the ridge between the Devikulam plateau and the lower valleys to the east. Above it rise the cliffs and grasslands of Chokramudi; below lie the estates of Lockhart and Chinnakanal. The route has carried traffic between the High Range and the Tamil country for generations, linking Munnar with Bodinayakanur and Theni, and it became part of the national highway that now runs from Kochi to the tip of Rameswaram.

What you see

• Periyakanal falls, often called the Power House waterfall, cascading down the rocks towards Chinnakanal. (Read the waterfalls of Idukki.)
• The tea country of Chinnakanal and Suryanelli, gateway to Kolukkumalai.
• The Anayirangal reservoir, home range of the wild tusker Arikkomban before his relocation.
• Clouds that pour through the gap in the afternoon, sometimes hiding everything within minutes.

A troubled widening

In 2017, work began to widen the 41.8 km Munnar–Bodimettu section of the highway, a project whose cost rose to over ₹380 crore. Cutting into the steep, fractured slopes of the Gap Road proved disastrous. Between July and October 2019 alone, some 14 landslips struck the area; one at Killavipara damaged shops and vehicles and closed the road for over a month, and another buried workers, triggered, according to reports, by blasting for the widening. A sub-collector's report that year had already warned that the work was "unscientific", that retaining walls had not been built, and that the soil's sensitivity had been ignored.

The slides continued: in June and August 2020, September 2021, July 2023 (when a KSRTC bus and bikers narrowly escaped), a major slide in July 2024 that closed the road for about two weeks, and another near Karinkal on 12 May 2025, the eighth since the widening, according to Onmanorama. Officials also reported that large quantities of rock had been illegally quarried under the cover of the road works. Each closure forces travellers onto a longer detour via Kunchithanny, and hotels and homestays around Devikulam and Chinnakanal have suffered. The widened road is now open, but the slopes remain fragile.

Driving it safely

• Check before you go: in heavy rain, the Idukki district administration often bans traffic, sometimes at night or for days at a time. Ask locally or check the news.
• Don't stop under the cliffs: pull over only at wide, safe points away from rock faces and the edge, and do not linger where fresh debris has fallen.
• Mist and wind: visibility can drop to a few metres; use fog lights, keep left and drive slowly.
• Wildlife: elephants cross the road around Chinnakanal and Anayirangal, especially at dusk.
• Never walk onto closed stretches during a ban.

Beyond the gap

Past the gap, the highway runs on through Poopara, cardamom country, to Chathurangapara and the border at Bodimettu, before plunging down the ghat road to Bodinayakanur. From Poopara, roads branch to Rajakumari, Rajakkad and Ponmudi, and to Santhanpara and Ramakkalmedu.