A trailer carrying a heavy piling machine got stuck on the middle of the road, after the chassis bent from weight and touched the road at Kilimanoor, causing heavy traffic snarl along the Thiruvananthapuram - Kottayam MC road on Monday. A long queue of vehicles formed on either side of the bridge near which the trailer halted. Police and panchayat authorities have imposed traffic regulations to ease the traffic snarl.

The trailer was transporting the machinery from Venjaramoodu to Akkulam. The piling machine was brought for the ongoing construction of a flyover at Venjaramoodu in Thiruvananthapuram. The driver of the trailer noticed the technical snag and stopped the vehicle at 3.15 am on Monday. 

"We noticed the issue and stopped the vehicle. When we checked, the chassis had bent owing to the weight and it touched the road. We couldn't proceed anymore," a representative of the logistics firm involved in transportation of the trailer said. 

The authorities now need to bring in another trailer to shift the piling machine. They are facing two issues. Loads of earth have to be transported and dumped on the road to prepare a ramp to shift the machine to another trailer. This has to be done without causing damage to the road. While the process is being done, vehicles will have to be diverted. Another issue is the availability of the trailer. 

"We are planning to bring another trailer either from Kochi or Vizhinjam. There is going to be some delay. In the meantime, a temporary ramp will be set up and the machine will be moved. The trailer will have to be towed to another place to ease the block," said Salil, president, Pazhayakunnummel gram panchayat. 

Residents said that the machine needs to be transported in a trailer designed to carry the weight or the problem will happen again. They said that the trailer could have been transported along Venjaramoodu bypass but they opted an alternative route expecting less traffic. "Now this has completely disrupted traffic on the busy MC road," a resident said.