After years of demand, lights on crash-prone Container Road

Street lights installed by the National Highways Authority of India along Container Road lit up on October 27.

The switch-on of 1,100 street lights along the 17-km-long, accident-prone Container Road (NH 966A), which provides a direct link between the International Container Transhipment Terminal at Vallarpadam and Kalamassery on NH 544, was carried out on Tuesday evening (October 27) by Hibi Eden, MP.

The National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) Kochi-II Project Implementation Unit (PIU) installed the lights under a ₹10-crore project.

In his speech, Mr. Eden said that all stakeholders, including motorists, had to work proactively to ensure that no lives were lost in accidents. “Motorists, especially women, had repeatedly been demanding street lights on the four-lane NH corridor, after which I raised the matter in the Lok Sabha. I also pursued the matter with Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, and with NHAI officials,” he said. NHAI Kochi project director P. Pradeep was among those present at the switch-on event.

The NHAI had agreed to install the lights two years ago, following complaints over many years from motorists and local residents about accidents, crimes and rampant waste dumping along the corridor under the cover of darkness. The Kerala High Court and the police had also directed the NHAI to install street lights to ensure safe commuting along the corridor.

The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), NGOs, road safety enthusiasts and people’s representatives had also pursued the matter with the NHAI after more than two dozen fatal accidents, especially those involving two-wheeler riders, occurred on the stretch over the past decade. Most of the accidents involved two-wheeler riders ramming into parked but unlit container lorries.

C.J. Johnson, a city-based road safety enthusiast, repeatedly took up the matter with the SHRC from 2015, pointing out that the lack of lighting made pedestrians and two-wheeler riders particularly vulnerable to accidents and crime at night.

He submitted that approximately ₹50 crore was needed to construct a kilometre of national highway in Keralam, including the cost of land. Lights could be installed along such a stretch at a cost of around ₹50 lakh, which was about 1% of the total cost per kilometre, he added.

Although the 1,100 lights were installed in early 2026, there was an inordinate delay in switching them on because the NHAI and the KSEB disagreed over the funds needed to install additional infrastructure. During the past year, the NHAI had also renovated the Container Road under a ₹90.02-crore project.