A parking lot for container lorries on the Vallarpadam island is expected to be ready within a fortnight. The facility is coming up on a total of five acres allotted by the Cochin Port Trust opposite the International Container Transshipment Terminal to the Bharat Petroleum Corporation.
The parking lot will come up on four acres. A fuel outlet, a toilet complex and amenities for the crew and drivers are part of the project, which involves an investment of around ₹4.5 crore.
Sources said that tenders have been invited to choose an operator for the facility, which is expected to completed before the monsoon. The facility has been developed for a total of 200 container lorries and around 100 lorries can be parked when the first phase is completed, sources added. The complex will also have eateries as the parking space comes to full utilization.
A permanent parking complex has been a long-standing demand by the lorry operators ever since the container transshipment terminal was inaugurated in February 2011. Lorry owners and crew had gone on strike on several occasions demanding parking facility as well as other amenities.
Parking of container lorries along the Container Road linking Kalamassery to the container transshipment terminal had been pointed out as a major cause for accidents. According to an early estimate, 500 to 1,000 container lorries arrive or leave the container terminal and their being parked randomly along the Container Road has also been a problem for the islanders, who live close to the container terminal.
A series of accidents on the 17-km Container Road had also forced the authorities in the past to restrict traffic during the nigh hours.
