Frequent gridlock truns NH at Ithikkara in Kollam a nightmare for commuters
Severe congestion on the Ithikkara National Highway, worsened by potholes and a road collapse, has caused extensive traffic jams, stranding emergency services and compromising pedestrian safety, with fears of further collapse during the Onam festival.
Severe congestion on the Ithikkara National Highway, worsened by potholes and a road collapse, has caused extensive traffic jams, stranding emergency services and compromising pedestrian safety, with fears of further collapse during the Onam festival.
Severe congestion on the Ithikkara National Highway, worsened by potholes and a road collapse, has caused extensive traffic jams, stranding emergency services and compromising pedestrian safety, with fears of further collapse during the Onam festival.
A massive traffic jam at Ithikkara on the National Highway has turned commuting into a nightmare, with severe congestion stretching for kilometres and leaving even emergency services like ambulances stranded for hours. Despite repeated assurances from authorities to repair the dilapidated stretch of road, the ground reality remains unchanged, causing immense hardship to travellers.
On Saturday, the gridlock began around 10:30 am and persisted well into the night. Vehicles were backed up in a bumper-to-bumper queue extending all the way from Mylakkad to Chathannoor Thirumukku. Traffic police officers faced an uphill battle managing the chaotic flow of vehicles amidst heavy, relentless rainfall.
Potholes and cave-ins worsen the crisis
The root cause of this persistent traffic chaos is the shocking state of the road between the Ithikkara curve and the vicinity of the Ithikkara mosque. Constant rainfall has filled the deep potholes with water, making them virtually invisible to drivers and causing vehicles to slow down to a crawl. To make matters worse, a portion of the road adjacent to the Ithikkara bridge caved in towards the river during the onset of the monsoon. While authorities placed concrete slabs along the collapsed edge as a safety measure, this has severely narrowed the usable width of the highway, creating a massive bottleneck.
Pedestrian safety compromised
Compounding the problem is the unfinished public utility work in the area. Concrete slabs on the bridge’s footpath, which were removed to lay water pipelines, have not been reinstated. This forces pedestrians onto the already narrow road, further slowing down traffic and raising serious safety concerns.
Fears of Onam festival rush
With the festive season just around the corner, local residents and regular commuters fear that the situation will become completely unmanageable once the Onam shopping rush begins. Unless the highway authorities take swift action to carry out temporary patching works and widen the bottleneck at the bridge, the region is staring at a complete collapse of its traffic network during the holidays.