The traffic woes of commuters and traders in Nedumangad will subside if the municipality succeeds in its effort to retrieve a piece of their land originally meant for constructing a parking lot, from the local police.

At a recent council meeting, the civic body decided to take all efforts to get back around one acre of its land now being used by the Nedumangad police to park seized vehicles. Municipal Chairperson Lekha Suresh told The Hindu that the civic body bought the land in 2004. By the time tenders were floated to select the agent to operate the parking place, the police started using the area for dumping seized vehicles, she said.

“Efforts were made to persuade the police to not use the place but they continued to occupy the area. Last week, the council passed a resolution authorising the municipality to retrieve the land. Two days ago, we handed over copies of the resolution to the state Police Chief and other officers concerned. We urged them to return the land at the earliest,” she said. The Nedumangad town faced a crunch of parking space. The only solution was to provide a separate place to park vehicles and, the council had recently sanctioned Rs.13 lakh to set up a parking lot, she said.