Protest in Kerala’s Chalakudy over poor roads, traffic congestion leads to NHAI engineer being locked in room

Chalakudy in Thrissur, Kerala, witnessed high drama as local body representatives, led by panchayat presidents, locked National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) site engineer A. Amal inside a room at the PWD resthouse for nearly two hours on Thursday evening, protesting against the poor condition of the roads and severe traffic congestion on national highway 544.

The protest erupted after the NHAI project director, who had earlier promised to attend the meeting, failed to show up.

The protesters declared that the engineer would not be released unless immediate measures were announced to ease the travel woes. At one point, tempers flared when the police attempted to force open the locked door, sparking a heated scuffle with LDF leaders who staged a sit-in outside the room.

As the stand-off escalated, more elected representatives and LDF leaders joined the protest, while additional police force were rushed to the site. Following tense negotiations, the police were allowed to send the DySP inside for talks.

The site engineer initially insisted that tarring could not begin immediately, but after consulting senior NHAI officials over phone, he assured that tarring at Muringoor, the worst-hit stretch, would begin the same night. He also conveyed the project director’s assurance that all urgent issues would be addressed and that he himself would visit the site and hold a meeting with representatives the following day. Only after this assurance did the protesters agree to release the engineer.

Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court has constituted an interim traffic management committee, comprising the Collector, District Police Chief, and RTO, to address the worsening congestion in the Mannuthy-Edappally stretch of NH 544.