Truck parking facility to come up at Vallarpadam.

The Cochin Port Trust has allotted 3.5 acres of land on Vallarpadam Island to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) for developing a modern lorry parking facility with various facilities for drivers and other crew of trucks coming to and going out of the Vallarpadam Container Transshipment Terminal.

The land was earlier allotted to the Indian Oil Corporation in February this year. However, it was re-allotted to BPCL in May with a view to developing the lorry parking facility at the earliest. The first phase of the facility, with a capacity to park 200 lorries, is expected to be ready by September, sources said.

The proposed lorry parking facility will come up close to the container transshipment terminal. It will house facilities like ATMs, food courts, rest rooms, a toilet complex as well as blocks for the lorry drivers, sources said.

The facility will be a long-term solution to the persisting problem of road accidents related to container lorries or long trailers that are often parked haphazardly along the Container Road between Kalamassery and the Vallarpadam Island.

More than a year ago, the Justice T. K. Chandrashekhara Das Commission had recommended restrictions on traffic movement on the Container Road during the night hours. The recommendation came after a series of accidents on the busy road. The commission had also looked at accident-prone stretches on the 17-km National Highway link to the Vallarpadam facility.

The dumping of waste along the road and lack of lighting had been identified as two of the key problems for the area and the National Highways Authority of India has finalised plans for installing streetlights. Lighting up the road is also a big relief to people living in the Mulavukadu, Kadamakkudy, Kalamassery and Eloor local bodies.

THE HINDU