Trailer lorries stuck on ghat road to resume their journey on Thursday night

KSRTC reschedules bus services between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has rescheduled its services on the Thamarassery Ghat Road between 11 p.m. on Thursday and 5 a.m. on Friday to make way for the two trailer lorries carrying huge machines for a multinational food and beverage company, which were stopped near Adivaram around three months ago.

A release quoting the KSRTC Executive Director, North Zone, on Wednesday said that since there were restrictions on traffic on the road, buses bound for Bengaluru from Kozhikode should go via Kuttiyadi, Fourth Mile, and Mananthavady. Those bound for Sulthan Bathery should go via Kuttiyadi, Fourth Mile, and Kalpetta. According to sources, around 22 buses connecting Kerala and Karnataka through Wayanad are operating on the road between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Private bus operators are planning to take the Iritti-Virajpet route to reach Karnataka. Earlier, a note from N. Tej Lohit Reddy, Kozhikode District Collector, had urged people to take alternative routes. This followed an expert committee set up by the district administration giving the green signal to a Tamil Nadu-based transport company that owns the lorries to continue the journey. The lorries are 16 feet wide and 20 feet tall.

Coming from Chennai in Tamil Nadu and bound for the MNC’s factory in Nanjangud in Karnataka, they were stopped by the Kozhikode district administration on September 10 considering the traffic block they would have caused. Views of a local organisation and the Wayanad district administration too were considered on the matter.

The operators have now given an undertaking that they will be responsible for all possible problems that may occur during the onward journey and have submitted a cautionary deposit of ₹20 lakh with the Kozhikode collectorate. Demand drafts for the amount drawn in favour of Wayanad and Kozhikode district administrations too have been submitted.

The expert committee comprising officials of the Department of Public Works, National Highways Authority of India, and the Thamarassery police inspected the documents and decided the date of journey. The machines imported from South Korea are meant for manufacturing milk powder and chocolate powder. There were around 14 persons, including wiremen, drivers, and technicians, in the lorries.

Initially, they were told to take the Koyilandy-Mangaluru route or the Perambra-Nadapuram-Kannur route as alternative routes. The operators as well as officials of the company, however, expressed difficulty in changing the route as the vehicles had already reached Adivaram. The expert committee was set up subsequently to explore options to let the lorries continue their journey on ghat road. The committee suggested that the lorries resume their journey on any day except Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. when vehicle rush is comparatively less. The money will be returned once both the vehicles pass by the ghat road without any trouble.