Over 1k streetlights to come up on Container Road to reduce accidents

KOCHI: In what could significantly reduce accidents on the Container Road, the 17.12km stretch connecting Kalamassery with the Vallarpadam International Containership Terminal will soon be lit up with 1,106 streetlights.

Having finished setting up lamp posts, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started providing live power connections, as part of implementing a Rs 100-crore project aimed at giving a major makeover to the accident-prone Container Road.

“The installation of streetlights will be completed by the end of this month and the entire stretch lit up. We’ve almost finished the retarring of the road, including the service roads, and also started the signage marking from the Vallarpadam side. Reflectors are also being placed on either side of the road,” a top NHAI official told TNIE.

Earlier, the Kerala High Court had asked the state government to take measures to make the stretch safer for traffic after a spate of fatal mishaps were reported. The main issues identified then were illegal parking of container lorries on the roadside and an absence of streetlights. The court ordered an immediate removal of all encroachments and placed restriction on the parking of trucks on the road. The NHAI had come under fire for failing to provide essential infrastructure on the stretch despite collecting a hefty toll.

A number of accidents occurred when motorists ram haphazardly parked container lorries at night in the absence of streetlights. Also, there were instances when miscreants dumped truckloads of garbage on the roadside and the surrounding water bodies.

“All 11 bridges on the stretch are being strengthened for a smooth flow of traffic by raising the deck. The work also includes replacement of bearings and expansion joints, repairing of cracks/damage, and relaying of the approach roads. The work has entered the final phase,” the official added.

The work on the project had commenced last April. This is the first major “strengthening and improvement work” since the highway corridor was commissioned in 2015.