Container Road remains a death trap

KOCHI: Despite the Kerala High Court’s direct intervention following the spate of fatal accidents being witnessed on Container Road here, stakeholders, including truckers and parking plaza operators, are continuing the blame game. Result: An early resolution to the problem appears a long shot.

“We are concerned about the rising number of accidents occurring on Container Road. Since the launch of International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) in 2011 at Vallarpadam,  container owners and workers are encountering difficulty in parking their vehicles. Despite having surplus land on their premises,  port authorities are yet to deliver on their promise, said Charles George, convener, Container Monitoring Committee (CMC). 

He said the exorbitant amount charged by parking plazas situated near the terminal is mainly to blame for the illegal parking of containers along the National Highway. “Apart from the private parking plaza near Bolgatty Palace, public sector oil companies BPCL and IOCL are providing parking facilities in the area. But most of them charge exorbitant rates while providing bare minimum space for parking. When more than 2,000 containers  operate to and fro from the terminal, how can they be accommodated in a space which has the capacity for a mere 300 vehicles?” Charles said. 

 BPCL authorities, however, refuted the charge. “We have provided four acres of parking yard. It was managed by container lorry owners’ association. Since they won the bid to manage the plaza, the parking rate is also fixed by them,” said a BPCL official.

in the files
● The exorbitant amount charged by parking plazas situated near the terminal is mainly to blame for the illegal parkings
● Though a proposal to allocate 10 acres for constructing a parking yard on land belonging to the Cochin Port was mooted in July 2017, nothing has come out of it