The perpetual traffic snarls in the High Court-Vypeen corridor and the recent traffic chaos in the city and Goshree islands in connection with the national ophthalmology meet at Lulu Bolghatty International Convention Centre, have accentuated the demand that the Goshree Islands Development Authority (GIDA) build the long-overdue bridges parallel to the first and last of the trio of Goshree bridges.
Last week’s snarls, the result of approximately 9,000 delegates converging at the centre in over 5,000 cars, witnessed serpentine queue of vehicles getting stuck in different directions from Bolghatty Island Junction, and the first Goshree bridge that has only two-lane width. Police personnel said they had a gruelling time trying to unwind the snarls that spilled over onto Banerjee Road and Shanmukham Road.
Stating that such massive traffic hold-ups that lasted for hours must not recur, Goshree Action Council chairman Majnu Komath said many commuters had to deboard vehicles and walk up to their destinations due to the chaos. “I had to forego attending a ceremony. The number of vehicles that would rely on the trio of bridges would increase phenomenally when the Coastal Highway through Vypeen and the Munambam-Azheekode bridge that would link Ernakulam with Thrissur, became a reality a few years down the lane.”
The GIDA and the State government must accord priority to building two-lane bridges parallel to the first and last of the Goshree bridges. They could be built without land acquisition since reclaimed land was already available, he added.
The widening of the bridges was already overdue, said George Kattunilath, general secretary of Greater Cochin Development Watch, an NGO that has been demanding among others, the improvement of transportation infrastructure in the Goshree region. “The widening process must go hand in hand with the development of Chathiath-Mamangalam Road, which has been in the cold storage for over two decades despite budgetary allocations. The road will considerably decongest Banerjee Road.”
