How to get an Ooty or Kodaikanal e-pass for your car, step by step

Short answer: if your car or bike is not registered in the Nilgiris, you apply for a free vehicle e-pass on the Tamil Nadu government portal epass.tnega.org before you reach the district checkpost, and you do it separately for the Nilgiris and for Kodaikanal because they are two different districts. The pass is tied to your registration number. Passes are issued on a first come, first served basis, so a Friday evening application for a Saturday run up the ghat is a gamble.

The system exists because of the Madras High Court. In March 2025 the forest bench of Justice N Satish Kumar and Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy capped tourist vehicle entry at 6,000 a day on weekdays and 8,000 on weekends for the Nilgiris, and 4,000 on weekdays and 6,000 on weekends for Kodaikanal, for the April to June peak. The Supreme Court declined to interfere with that order on 28 March 2025, telling the Tamil Nadu Hotels Association the High Court was "perfectly correct".

What the form asks for

Log in with your mobile number, or an email address if you are a foreign national, and verify the OTP. Pick the Nilgiris or Kodaikanal. Then fill in your name, purpose of visit, vehicle registration number, vehicle type, fuel type, number of passengers, date of entry, date of exit, permanent address and your place of stay in the hills. Save the pass as a PDF on your phone and take a screenshot as well, because mobile data on the ghat sections is unreliable. Carry an ID that matches the application.

Three things worth knowing before you apply. Vehicles registered in the Nilgiris, public transport, government vehicles, vehicles used for trade and business and emergency vehicles such as ambulances are outside the e-pass and cap system. People arriving by train or bus do not need a pass at all, which makes the Mettupalayam train or a state bus a clean way around a sold out day. And the court asked the state to give priority to electric vehicles when issuing passes.

The collectors have some room on event days. The Nilgiris collector can raise the daily ceiling by 500 vehicles for the flower, fruit and rose shows, and the Kodaikanal collector by 300 vehicles on flower show day.

What you actually pay

The e-pass is issued by the state portal and no fee is reported for it. The money comes out at the checkpost, as green tax. When the Nilgiris district administration revised the slabs, reported on 1 December 2020, it set buses and lorries at ₹100, maxi cabs, taxis and light motor vehicles at ₹70, cars at ₹30 and motorcycles at ₹10, collected in cash at the entry check posts. Rates can change, so keep ₹100 in small notes in the door pocket rather than argue at the barrier.

Plan the drive around the night ban

Coming from Bengaluru or Mysuru, the clock matters more than the pass. Night traffic is banned from 9 pm to 6 am on the 25 km stretch of NH 766 through Bandipur, a restriction imposed in 2009 and upheld by the Supreme Court. If you miss the 9 pm gate you either sit it out or take the 44 km detour via Hunsur, Gonikoppal, Kutta and Mananthavady. Leave early enough that a lunch stop does not push you into the ban.

Build in slack at the border too. In April 2025, a server outage at Gudalur held up e-pass issuance and left travellers from Karnataka waiting at the Mudumalai forest park border. Apply a day ahead, keep the PDF offline, and check the weather and any road closure notices for your ghat before you commit to the drive.

Sources

• Madras High Court Limits Tourist Vehicles Entering Nilgiris & Kodaikanal During Summer, Asks For Preference To Be Given To Electric Cars (LiveLaw)
• Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Hoteliers' Plea Against E-Pass Limits For Tourist Vehicles (LiveLaw)
• Visiting Ooty or Kodaikanal? Here is how you can apply for e-pass (DT Next)
• Madras HC orders relaxation on e-pass for tourists to Nilgiris and Kodaikanal (DT Next)
• Nilgiris increases Green Tax for outstation vehicles according to category (DT Next)
• Server glitch in Gudalur delays e-pass issuance for tourists (DT Next)
• Explained: Why environmentalists don't want vehicles to enter Bandipur forest at night (The News Minute)