Pollachi-Valparai Hill rider

After long wait im putting up my favorite hill rider blog. I used to watch these buses right from my child hood days. I had an opportunity to travel in this bus first time when my dad took me to Balaji temple at valparai. It happened around 15 yrs ago.

This Pollachi – Valparai hill rider was built with Leyland Cheetah 9M chasis. This is one of the main hill routes present for TNSTC-CBE. This Pollachi – valparai Hill rider is operated by Valparai, Pollachi-2,3 depots. These hill riders for TNSTC-CBE are built by TNSTC-CBE body building unit at pollachi(Formerly known as Cheran Engineering Corporation)

Totally 40 Hair pin bends are there in this route. You can also have a complete view of the Aziyar dam while riding in the hill. Even though we have hill riders in other routes(by TNSTC-CBE and others), the unique thing about this route is, till date i havent seen even a single 12M chasis bus.

Enjoying a typical “U” turn in one of the hair pin bend.. Shot this Video during my bike trip to Valparai..

The main routes of these buses are
Pollachi – Valparai
Pollachi – Kadambarai
Pollachi – Sholayar dam
Pollachi – Akkamalai
Pollachi – Mudees
Pollachi – High forest
Pollachi – Chalakudi via Valparai
Valparai – Chalakudi via Sholayar, Athirapalli falls
Coimbatore – Valparai
Coimbatore – Kadamparai
Palani – Valparai Via Udumalpet, N.M.Sungam and POY
Valparai – Thirupur via POY

To my knowledge the first bus starts from POY at 3.30 Am in the early morning. Last bus is around 10.00 AM. for more information about the timings please check in Pollachi bus stand. Night services were stopped for some time, Now they restarted it again.

TNSTC-CBE also operates hill riders in Nilgiris, CBE-Munnar, Palani-Munnar, POY-TOPSlip-Parambikulam etc., The other routes like Palani-Ooty, POY-Ooty, MTP-Kodai, Erode-Kodai, Sathy-Kodai are operated by 12M Chasis.

TNSTC-MDU operates hill riders in Madurai-Bodi-Munnar, Theni-Munnar, Palani-Kodai etc.,

I think TNSTC-SLM operates Hill riders in Salem-Yercaud route.

Kerala SRTC operates hill riders in Chalakudy – Athirapally falls, Palakkad – Nelliyampathy routes.

Beauty of the roads where these hill riders travel

Hill riders introduced in 2010

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17 thoughts on “Pollachi-Valparai Hill rider”

  1. Hi Dhandapani,

    TNSTC-MDU (DGL Region) operates hill riders in Dindigul – Sirumalai & Dindigul – Panrimalai ghat routes also.

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  4. could you please give me the info about the time it takes to reach valparai from pollachi and Availability of direct bus from Coimbatore? reply ASAP. M traveling this weekend.

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    • It takes around 3.5 to 4 hrs to reach valparai from pollachi. Very less buses are available from CBE. So better take a bus to Pollachi. Every 5 min you have a bus to pollachi from CBE(Ukkadam BS). Then every 15-30 min you have bus to valparai from pollachi BS. Two or Three direct buses are there from CBE. Forgot the exact timings.

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  5. tnstc cbe hill rider is very nice they also insert eicher chassis in hll rider because it is very low maintainance and suitable for hill rider

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  6. Hey I am under a view that they are VIking rather than a Cheatah.
    The most important about this route is they have more S bends – I believe upto 3 or 4

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  7. Are you sure about the use of Ashokleyland 12M buses by TNSTC CBE for ghat routes. This is usually dominated by 193″ Chetah and 210 Viking

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    • Hi,
      From Coimbatore(Ukkadam), we have buses to Valparai 2:00 AM, 7:58 AM, 1:05 PM, 3:45 PM. Instead of waiting in CBE, you catch a bus to Pollachi from Ukkadam and from there we have good number of buses running to Valparai.

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  10. I planed a one day trip to go valparai from chennai by the end of may on saturday.. My plan is to take Allepey or Nillagiri exp till Tiruppur and then go to Valapari via – Palladam, Pollachi.. Whether Chennai – CBE – Pollachi – Valparai will be easy/better (or) Chennai – Tiruppur – Pollachi – Valapari ??? Suggest a better which is better for comfort journey.. Whether we have frequent buses from pollachi to valpari and back ??? Also i want to know Bus Fare between Tiruppur – Pollachi – Valparai and Coimbatore – Pollachi – Valparai.. Also i plan to return in SETC on sunday from Pollachi to Chennai. I think its fare is 415/-

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  11. Pingback: Pollachi-Valparai Hill riders on duty in Ghat road | TNSTC's Blog - Tamilnadu State Transport Corporation blog - தமிழ்நாடு அரசுப் போக்குவரத்துக் கழகம் வலைப்பதிவு

  12. After 8.30 pm the next bus is only at 10 pm from Pollachi to Valparai. Yesterday (Oct 10, 2016) I reached pollachi bus stand at 8.35 pm and waited upto 10.10 pm to get Valparai bus

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