Mettupalayam is a municipality town and taluk headquarters of Mettupalayam Taluk in the Coimbatore district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a suburb of Coimbatore. It is the third largest town in the Coimbatore district after Coimbatore and Pollachi. It's located to the North of the Coimbatore city on the way to Ooty in the foothills of Nilgiri hills. As of 2011, the town had a population of 66,595. Mettupalayam railway station is the starting point of Nilgiri Mountain Railway and it operates the only rack railway in India connecting Ooty and Mettupalayam.