Miserable Monday morning

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city roads were choked with motor vehicles on Monday morning as thousands of motorists were trapped in enormous traffic jams that took shape during the peak hours. All major areas in the city were equally affected by the traffic jams so that both the North and South divisions of the City Traffic Police had to deploy their entire force, even officers on office duty, on the roads to bring the situation under control.  The Traffic officials attributed the cause of the roadblocks to the ongoing maintenance works on the city roads. With the schools reopening, the volume of vehicles on the roads has suddenly increased manifold, which, coupled with the pathetic condition of the roads, caused the traffic block, the officials pointed out. ‘’Presently, various works are going on in different areas of the city. Either the vehicular traffic is completely blocked or partially regulated along those roads. This caused congestion, which eventually became one big traffic jam that affected the entire city,’’ said Sivaprasad, Assistant Commissioner of Traffic Police, South. Besides the road works, there occurred a few minor accidents involving some vehicles which were manoeuvring through the blocks, which worsened the situation. In some places, the long queue of vehicles even extended to several kilometres, like the one formed from Kesavadasapuram to Sreekariyam, the Assistant Commissioner said. Assistant Commissioner of North Traffic Police, Raju, said that they had to shut off the traffic signal lights at junctions so that the officials could manually control the traffic, improvising according to the situation.  ‘’A few weeks ago, agencies like the Kerala Road Fund Board and Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Limited had withdrawn the service of the traffic wardens employed by them saying that most of their works had been completed. This has also increased the workload of the Traffic Police, who are already suffering from shortage of personnel,’’ the officer said.  The Traffic officials had to work for about three hours after they brought the vehicular traffic under control.