Centralised Truck Parking Plaza fails to draw truck drivers who prefer to park lorries along the road

A sprawling centralised truck parking plaza built by V.O.C. Port Authority at a cost of ₹23.69 crore with all facilities for the benefit of truck drivers transporting cargo from various parts of the country to and from the city is lying largely unused as the drivers park their vehicles haphazardly along the road, causing traffic snarl and even accidents.As a few thousand lorries are involved in transporting cargo to and from V.O.C. Port every day, the round-the-clock truck terminal to handle 125 heavy vehicles at any given time was built on 12.80 acres of land in front of Thoothukudi Fisheries College and Research Institute on the national highway connecting the harbour and FCI godown junction. The drivers can park their vehicles at this place and take rest before commencing their journey.Since the drivers manoeuvring the heavy vehicles need complete rest before starting long-distance travel, the terminal has a dormitory with beds for drivers and cleaners, where they need to pay just ₹5 an hour for the dormitory and parking fee is ₹5 from the ninth hour as the first eight hours of parking is free. Since canteens are functioning here, they can have their breakfast, lunch and dinner or in nearby eateries.Moreover, the drivers can easily complete the mandatory documentation process by Customs and Container Terminal Operators in the truck terminal itself, which saves a lot of time for the drivers at the gates of V.O.C. Port and inside the harbour.Despite all these advantages, only a handful of lorry drivers use this facility while others insecurely park their vehicles on the highways — the stretch connecting V.O.C. Port and FCI Godown Junction and the FCI Godown Junction and Madurai Highway via SIPCOT — to cause traffic jams along this busy highway and even accidents.Congestion on highway“Since most of the lorry drivers park their vehicles on the service roads on this four-lane national highway, vehicles taking the service roads often get stuck in this mess. As most of the truck drivers from other States do not understand Tamil, it often leads to heated argument between the local people and the drivers. The police should instruct the drivers to park their vehicles either inside the truck terminal or take their vehicles to V.O.C. Port area,” says K. Ravi, an employee of a manufacturing unit in Thoothukudi SIPCOT Industrial Complex, who uses this road every day.Superintendent of Police R. Shiva Prasad promised to look into this issue and take due steps to bring orderliness on roads. Published - September 08, 2026 09:46 pm IST