A logistics park to ease the traffic pressure on Container Terminal Road and provide space for parking of container lorries is among the several new projects announced by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at the mass contact programme at the district headquarters here on Thursday.
“The new project will include amenities for the drivers and crew of the container lorries. Beautification of the container road, complete with walkways, is part of the project,” Mr. Chandy said.
The Chief Minister’s announcement comes in tandem with the Cochin Port Trust substantially sweetening the tender conditions for a 30-year lease of five acres of space opposite the container terminal for building a parking facility.
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The Port Trust has also offered 20 per cent of the space in the allotted area for building facilities related to transport businessMore than 500 container lorries go to and fro from the terminal premises daily and currently there are no facilities for parking or for the drivers and crew of these lorries. Lorries are now parked along the Container Terminal Road, a practice that has been blamed for road accidents along the Kalamassery-Vallarpadam stretch of the road.
Port Trust sources said the location of the five acres being earmarked for the parking facility had been shifted to within 100 metres of the container terminal gate. Earlier the location was about 400 metres from the gate.