Sabari vehicles clog roads

Madurai, Dec. 25: With the mandala pooja in Sabarimala scheduled on Saturday, the Cumbum-Kumily stretch of the Theni-Kollam national highway suffers heavy traffic snarl as rush of vehicles carrying Aiyappa devotees line up at the Kerala check posts for clearance.

However, over 100 police personnel from Tamil Nadu are engaged in decongesting the traffic and ensuring smooth flow of pilgrims’ vehicles.

Kumily circle inspector N.Pandian said, “The staff in both commercial tax and road transport checkposts situated in a single building on the Kerala side of Kumily are causing inordinate delay in clearing the goods carriers and issuing permits to the passenger vehicles. This is the main reason for traffic jam.”

A weighing bridge situated just ten feet from the TN border and the refusal of the Kerala police to park the TN vehicles on their side so as to enable the Aiyappa devotees to shop at Kumily are attributed as the other reasons.

Thousands of vehicles with Aiyappa devotees from various parts of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh take the Theni route to reach Sabarimala.