The demand to set up a common facility at the inter-State check-post at Walayar, near here, in the place of separate check-posts presently operated by Departments of Motor Vehicles, Commercial Taxes, Excise, Animal Husbandry, and Forests has gained momentum.
The Finance Department has already approached the Forest Department seeking 25 acres of land close to the State border for the facility. The High Court had quashed an earlier plan to construct the complex by filling a pond and acquiring adjacent agricultural lands.
Isaac’s proposal
It was during his earlier stint as Finance Minister that T.M. Thomas Isaac proposed the project to make transactions at the border check-post corruption-free.
There were also plans to install modern scanners which can clear cargo fast without allowing for tax evasion. No step was taken by the succeeding UDF government to implement the project, which could ease traffic congestion on the Palakkad-Coimbatore route.
Long wait
In the absence of the common facility, trucks wait on the road for several hours for clearance from different departments.
Non-commercial vehicles often have to struggle for hours to pass through the stretch. According to department officials, about 45 per cent of Kerala-bound cargos are transported through this check-post. In the last fiscal, 8,18,102 freight vehicles had passed through the check-post.
