Kochi: For years, tractors carrying materials to Sannidhanam and back were posing dangers to pilgrims negotiating slippery and narrow stretches of the Swamy Ayyappan Road during their four-km-long trekking.
The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has finally decided to act and minimise tractor movements from the upcoming season, eventually cutting down to below 10 by 2019 when the material ropeway construction is expected to be completed.
“We’ll put in place restrictions step by step. And by 2019, they would be limited to Sannidhanam complex and Pampa base camp alone. The heavy materials can then be transported uphill through the ropeway. We’ll also discourage headload conveyance,” said Sabarimala executive officer V. S. Jayakumar.
The ropeway would end near the Malikappuram complex and a few tractors would then be used to transport the goods to nearby shops and hotels besides materials like jiggery for temple use. Similarly, a couple of them would be deployed at the Pampa base camp to transport goods to nearby shops and that for preparing ‘prasadam’ of the Ganapathy Temple.
Nearly 50 tractors are being deployed at Sabarimala every pilgrimage season for goods transportation on a daily basis with each of them operating a minimum of three trips a day,” said officials.
”They run at a high speed and blaring air horns continuously. The matter is very serious as the returning pilgrims are being diverted or allowed to return only via crowded Swamy Ayyappan Road. Every year at least one or two pilgrims die on the stretch,” said Jayakrishnan Omalloor, who visits the holy shrine every year.
On May 1, the TDB finally signed a pact with the Kolkata-based Damodar Ropeways to execute the Rs 25 crore ropeway project to transport goods to the hilltop. The company can charge Rs 1900 a tonne for transportation of materials.
