Rain and fog along NH-85's hill climb between Neriamangalam and Munnar, read at five points, with who actually decides closures.
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One-way traffic past the Old Munnar fissure
Check these before you set out — they are the road status; this page is only the weather.
The Idukki District Collector, chairing the District Disaster Management Authority, decides travel bans and advisories on this road — as on 12 May 2025 for Gap Road and 6 July 2026 for NH-85. NHAI carries out barricading and restoration; Devikulam and Santhanpara police enforce.
Over the next two days the model puts the most rain at Neriamangalam — 13 mm, steady rain.
The lowest visibility it expects in the next 24 hours is dense fog at Munnar town (around 18:00).
These are weather-model estimates for grid cells, not measurements — and weather figures are never a road status.
Along NH-85 (Kochi–Dhanushkodi Road), from town to the far end — the order the trip goes.
The top of the climb — where the trip starts or ends.
Where a hillside fissure more than 100 m long opened in July 2026; traffic runs one-way past it.
The Pothamedu viewpoint section, on the 13 km between Iruttukanam and Randam Mile that closed after a road collapse in May 2025.
The midway town. The Ettumuri mudslide of October 2025, which killed one person, happened here with no rain falling at the time.
Where the road leaves the hills for the plains.
Every figure here is a weather model’s estimate for an area, not a rain gauge and not a road camera. A model cannot see a landslide, a rockfall, roadworks or a closure.
Rain and slides do not line up neatly here. The Ettumuri mudslide near Adimali (October 2025) came when no rain was falling and was blamed on highway blasting; the July 2026 fissure above Old Munnar opened during widening works. Slides have cut this road in 2018, 2020, 2024, 2025 and 2026. The Pettimudi debris flow of 6 August 2020, which killed 70 people in estate housing near Rajamala, is why Munnar treats heavy-rain warnings seriously.
This page describes the weather along the corridor. It cannot say whether the road is open, and it is never a judgement that driving is safe.
The 41 km Munnar–Bodimettu stretch toward Poopara and Theni is the other chronic failure section — its eighth landslide since reconstruction came in May 2025, and travel bans recur there. This page reads the Kochi-side climb, but the same caution applies east.
Source: Onmanorama, checked 11 July 2026 (today).
NH-85 through town was shut from 4 to 9 July after the fissure. Since 4 pm on 9 July, traffic runs one-way: vehicles from Adimali keep left past the CSI church, while vehicles from Mattupetty or Marayoor take the Devikulam route and cross the new bridge. The collector says the risk is not fully gone.
Source: Onmanorama, checked 11 July 2026 (today).
Updated 11 July at 19:29. Weather figures are model estimates from Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0), read at the points named above; ridge points use an elevation setting so the model downscales to that height. Visibility is worded on the WMO/NWS scale (fog below 1,000 m, dense fog below a quarter mile).