The Rohtang Pass permit — how it works, who needs it, and when you don't

Why there is a permit at all

The road over Rohtang Pass climbs to 3,978 m on a single narrow line of hairpins above the treeline, and for years in season it carried more cars than it could hold or the pass could bear. The permit system that followed — one permit per vehicle, for one date, with a daily cap on how many are issued — is what keeps the road moving and the pass from becoming a car park. It is administered by the Kullu district administration through an online portal and enforced at a checkpost at Gulaba, where the road leaves the forest.

Since the Atal Tunnel opened, the pass is no longer the way to anywhere — Lahaul, Spiti and Leh are reached through the tunnel with no permit — and the permit is purely for the day out on the old road. That changes the question from "how do I get one" to "do I want one", and this page answers both.

How it works

One vehicle, one date. The permit is issued for a specific vehicle on a specific day, from the district administration's portal. It asks for the vehicle's registration and pollution-certificate details, the driver's licence and the date, and takes the fee online; the permit is shown at the Gulaba checkpost on the day, on a phone or on paper. A permit for the wrong date or the wrong vehicle is no permit.

A daily cap. The number issued per day is limited, and the limit sells out on weekends in May and June and on October weekends. Apply the day your dates are fixed; on a weekday in September or October a permit is usually available the day before. The cap is set by the authorities and changes; we do not print a number that will be wrong by the time you read it.

The checkpost at Gulaba. About 19 km and 35 min from Manali, where the road leaves the forest for open meadow. Below it — Kothi and its gorge, Rehala Falls, Gulaba itself — no permit is needed. Above it — Marhi, the hairpins, the pass — every vehicle is checked. Cars without a permit turn round at Gulaba, which is a good meadow and a poor consolation.

The season. The pass is open roughly May to November; from about mid-November to May it is closed by snow and no permit exists because there is no road. The opening and closing dates are announced each year and move with the snowfall.

If you are hiring a taxi

The taxi union at the Manali bus stand sells the Rohtang day as a package, and the operators book permits for their own cars — that is the normal way most visitors go up. Ask three things when you book: that the permit is in hand, that it is for your date, and what the day includes (most stop at Marhi and the pass; some add Gulaba and Rehala on the way down). A car booked through a hotel costs more for the same permit and the same road. Leave at six; the checkpost queue is what turns a clear morning into a nine-hour day.

If you are driving or riding yourself

Your own car, a rented car or a rented motorcycle needs its own permit, in your name and for your registration, before you reach Gulaba. Rental shops in Manali will tell you whether they can arrange it for their vehicles; many cannot, and a rented scooter on the pass road is a poor idea regardless. The bike-rental guide has the rides that need no permit, which are the better rides.

When you do not need one

The tunnel and Sissu. The 8.8 km tunnel under the ridge is a national highway with no permit or toll, open in every month. Sissu on the far side is 39 km and about an hour from Manali, with snow for half the year and a different valley at the end. No permit, no checkpost, no queue. For a first visit in any month this is the better day, and the Rohtang or tunnel article says why at length.

Everything below Gulaba. Solang and the flying, the walk to Anjani Mahadev, Kothi and the gorge, the falls at Rehala, the meadow at Gulaba and its snow in winter. Nothing on the Manali side of the checkpost needs a permit.

Winter. From mid-November to May the pass is shut; a "Rohtang trip" sold in the town in January is a drive to wherever the plough has stopped, usually Gulaba, and needs nothing. The January article has the winter roads.

When the permit is worth having

In May and early June, when the walls of snow at the roadside near the top are at their highest and the queue is not yet at its worst. In September and October, when the sky at the top is clear and a weekday permit is easy. And on any day when what you want is the height and the view down both sides of the divide rather than a place. The four-day plan and the five-day everything plan give the pass its own day, with Sissu done first so that a permit that fails to weather does not cost you the mountains.

The small print

The permit is for the vehicle, not the passengers; a full taxi is one permit. Warm clothes are hired at the roadside above Kothi by the day. Cash for the dhabas at Marhi and the stalls at the top; nothing there takes a card. The pass is nearly two thousand metres above the town — a fleece, a shell and a hat in every month it is open. Small children and anyone with a heart or breathing condition should read the kids guide and the parents plan before deciding. The Manali guide has the rest of the valley's permits, which is a short list.

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