K.C. Venugopal seeks urgent action to ease highway congestion in Kerala

Congress leader K.C. Venugopal, MP, has written to Santosh Kumar Yadav, chairperson of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), demanding immediate action to resolve traffic congestion caused by construction works on national highways (NH) in Kerala.

Mr. Venugopal also urged Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to deploy more police personnel to regulate traffic on the highways.

He demanded that all service road repairs be expedited and priority lanes for emergency vehicles be arranged to ensure smooth travel. “At present, passengers are getting stranded for hours in areas such as Ernakulam-Thuravoor and Edappally-Thrissur stretches. The situation has worsened due to continuous rains and subsequent waterlogging,” the Alappuzha MP said.

Mr. Venugopal criticised the NHAI for failing to maintain service roads, ensure effective traffic management and provide adequate safety at construction sites. As chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), he said he had earlier raised serious concerns regarding the condition of service roads in construction areas.

“The interim report of the PAC had also pointed out the lapses of the NHAI. Yet, the NHAI failed to intervene effectively,” he said.

He noted that, since traffic congestion at the Paliyekkara toll plaza in Thrissur was not resolved, the Kerala High Court had intervened and ordered the suspension of toll collection for four weeks. Mr. Venugopal pointed out that, following the High Court, even the Supreme Court had reprimanded the NHAI for collecting tolls without improving basic infrastructure.

Lapses in construction

In his letter, Venugopal also highlighted serious lapses in construction, citing recent accidents such as the iron beam that fell to the ground during the construction of the Aroor-Thuravoor elevated highway the other day, and the collapse of a girder at the same site last month. He said that negligence by the NHAI and the poor quality of construction were responsible for these accidents.

The Alappuzha MP urged the Kerala government to take urgent measures to ensure smooth traffic. He reiterated the need for additional police deployment to effectively manage traffic in NH construction zones, particularly along NH 66 in the Ernakulam-Aroor-Thuravoor stretch and NH 544 in the Edappally-Thrissur stretch.