Thamarassery ghat road witnesses severe traffic blocks

Thamarassery: Severe traffic congestion has become frequent on the Thamarassery ghat road, connecting Kozhikode and Wayanad districts. In the latest incident, vehicles were blocked for several hours from Wednesday morning, when the Eid al-Fitr festival coincided with school holidays.

The main reason for Wednesday’s congestion was the work to retrieve an earthmoving machine which had overturned into a steep gorge near the sixth hairpin bend on the ghat road a month ago. Workers tied an iron rope across the ghat road to lift the machine, causing traffic disruption. The earthmover fell into the gorge on April 27 while widening the ghat road.

Travellers staged a protest on Wednesday when the authorities tied an iron rope across the road and lifted the earthmover without making any advance announcement about the work. Traffic along the ghat road came to a halt within minutes after a team of workers from Valapattanam tied the rope across the road at 7 am on Wednesday. The long queue of vehicles soon extended from Adivaram to Lakkidi, giving much distress to passengers.

The traffic situation worsened when multi-axle vehicles, which had been banned on the ghat road due to widening work at hairpins 6, 7, and 8, came from all directions on Wednesday. The lack of sufficient police personnel to control traffic made things worse.

While the work to retrieve the earthmover from the gorge was completed by 1 pm, the iron rope tied across the road was removed only by 2 pm, and traffic blocks eased only by 4 pm. Still, the ghat road saw heavy traffic even at night. C K Kasim, MLA, who had arrived to inspect the widening work of the ghat road, was also held up in the traffic block for a long time.

The ghat road witnessed a severe traffic block on Tuesday, following an accident involving a truck that lost control near the eighth hairpin bend, hitting a bike and a car before overturning into a drain.