Thumba witnessed tense moments on Sunday after a hydraulic axle trailer transporting a massive settling chamber to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) for the trisonic wind tunnel project was blocked by a section of the local residents.
Ignoring the Sunday lockdown curbs, a crowd had gathered in the vicinity of the VSSC gates, preventing the trailer from entering the ISRO facility.
Reportedly, the demonstrators demanded a huge sum for allowing the cargo to be unloaded, but this has not been confirmed by the police.
The vehicle was blocked around 11 a.m., and the police were deployed in strength in the area. The District Labour officials who visited the spot on the instructions of Minister for Labour V. Sivankutty said that the demonstrators were not accredited trade union workers but residents of the locality.
The police have registered a case against 50 persons identifiable by sight for the obstruction of public way and violation of the COVID-19 regulations.
By 1 p.m., the trailer entered the VSSC campus through the South Thumba gate. Here too, tree branches had to be trimmed and the cargo reached its destination, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) where the wind tunnel is coming up, by 6 p.m.
The settling chamber, a key component of the trisonic wind tunnel, VSSC, was transported in two sections weighing 128 tonnes and 57 tonnes.
Manufactured in Pune, the equipment was shipped from Mumbai to the Kollam port in mid-August. From there, it was transported to Thumba by road. Given the massive size of the cargo and its height of 7.1 metres, the journey had taken several days due to the presence of overhead power cables and overhanging tree branches.
On Sunday, the trailer had taken a different route, via south Thumba, from the one normally used for moving cargo to VSSC given the size of its cargo. According to the consultant of the Mumbai-based logistics firm Express Global Logistics Pvt Ltd, transportation via the usual route would have been difficult.
A small bridge near the Canal Gate of VSSC posed a hurdle for the heavy trailer. The gate also lacked the adequate width. The width of the road also does not allow for parking overnight.
The trisonic wind tunnel will enable the VSSC to carry out tests in subsonic, transonic and supersonic speed regimes.
