Kannur struggles with severe traffic congestion on roads and at railway stations ahead of Onam

Kannur: With Kannur city struggling under an ever-growing rush of vehicles each day, the police are finding it increasingly difficult to untangle the riddle of traffic blocks. As the Onam season approaches, managing traffic in the city is set to become an even greater challenge.

In previous years, traffic snarls were largely confined to stretches of the National Highway between Thazhe Chovva and Puthiyatheru. This time, however, congestion extends further—from Thazhe Chovva to Chala and from Puthiyatheru all the way up to Valapattanam.

The main reason for this chaos is the inadequacy of road infrastructure, compounded by ongoing development works on the National Highway between Kizhuthali and Chala. Even though no construction is taking place on the older highway stretch between Puthiyatheru and Valapattanam, the heavy influx of vehicles is choking key junctions, especially where traffic from the KSTP road merges with the highway. The return flow of vehicles is creating equally severe logjams. To make matters worse, vehicles moving in parallel lines from Chungam Junction to the divider at the start of the Pazhayangadi road are adding to the gridlock.

What was once a problem limited to working days has now spilt over to holidays as well. Sundays, which earlier saw relatively free-flowing traffic, are no longer an exception. The rush has even overwhelmed public transport hubs. At the Kannur railway station yesterday, the crowd was so intense that passengers had no space even to turn, let alone move.