Traffic along the Vallarpadom container terminal road was restricted for about an hour around on Saturday morning after the top of a container lorry scraped an iron bar atop the railway gate near Vallarpadom.
The bar fell loose under the impact of the collision around 4.30 a.m. Traffic along the route had to be regulated for a long time as local officials said only the Railways had the authority to fix the bar.
A Railway assistant engineer from Aluva arrived at the spot to supervise the efforts to clear the area. The bar was cut away and the road cleared around 1 p.m. Police officials said the top of the container scraped the bar as the road had been re-tarred recently for the Prime Minister’s visit to the region.
“The increased height of the road led to the container hitting the bar. A similar incident happened a few months ago as well,” said a police official. A long queue of vehicles stretched on for a long distance as the block took a long time to clear.
Railway Ernakulam Area Manager P.L. Ashok Kumar said the container was a high cube container, larger than those usually using the road. “We have a standard for the height gauge as prescribed by our engineering manual and cannot change the height. We are planning to write to the Transport Commissioner and District Collector requesting them to deny permission to run high cube containers on this route,” Mr. Kumar said.
He said the height gauge at the level crossing would be replaced soon in the coming days. He said a long term solution to the problem would be to commission a railway overbridge at Vallarpadam. This would prevent frequent accidents such as Saturday’s incident, he said.
