Kottiyoor: A massive traffic jam disrupted movement along the hilly highway and Kottiyoor parallel road on Saturday morning. Heavy rains, muddy conditions, and a rush of vehicles created a huge problem. Devotees and locals who came to attend the Vaisakha Festival on Saturday were stuck from 6 a.m.

The traffic jam stretched from Ambayathodu to Manjalampuram on the main hilly highway and from Irattathodu to Kottiyoor on the parallel road. Since it was a holiday, devotees reached Kottiyoor in buses, travellers and private vehicles. The parking lots in Kottiyoor were full of vehicles in the morning itself.

The parking lot was full, and the vehicles had to stop on the roads. After sitting in the vehicles for hours, many people got impatient and walked towards Kottiyoor despite the heavy rain. The women who came with their children were the most affected. Many mothers walked for kilometres carrying their children.

The heavy rains doubled the misery of the devotees who walked down the road, as the road was filled with mud. As a huge traffic jam formed on the hilly highway, vehicles were diverted to the parallel road. However, there was a huge traffic jam on the parallel road as well. It took six to seven hours to travel the 11 km distance from Ambayathodu to Kelakam on the hilly highway. The traffic jam got eased by evening.

The main reason for the traffic jam was that vehicles remained on the road due to lack of sufficient parking space. The narrowness of the road caused traffic jams on the parallel road.

When the road, which was eight meters wide, was reconstructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, it was tarred to a width of only 3.75 meters. Due to the lack of sidewalks in many places on the hilly highway and the mud on the roadside, pilgrims walked onto the road, causing traffic congestion. The crisis also resulted from the arrival of more vehicles than could be accommodated in Kottiyoor.