The railway crossings, built in the days when there were only a handful of trains on the tracks and very few vehicles were seen on the road, are still standing. The long lines of vehicles on both sides of the gates waiting for it to open is a familiar picture. Plans get announced in railway budgets to do away with crossing gates and replace them with flyovers, but most of them never make it to the track. The construction of the flyovers, which commences somehow, takes a long while to be completed. There are many places across the state where there is an urgent need for flyovers to replace the railway gates that obstruct smooth travel.

The Railway Minister recently announced that there is a big plan to build 1600 railway flyovers across the country. There is no indication of how many of these will be in Kerala. However, the railway minister has instructed officials to prepare a plan to construct railway flyovers in front of Kochuveli Clay Factory and near the ISRO station gate which are busy spots in Thiruvananthapuram. People have been requesting these two flyovers for more than two decades. Both these spots have high vehicular traffic. This is an area with large organizations including ISRO and many IT institutes, that requires thousands of vehicles for multiple needs. Anyone who has traveled there knows the traffic jams the level crossings create in this area. Level crossings adjacent to Station Kadav and Clay Factory are major level crossings on the railway line that bisects the coastal region and urban areas. On some occasions, the gate will remain closed until three or four trains have passed. Gate malfunctions that happen occasionally aggravate the situation. If things speed up according to the Minister's announcement, the construction of the flyovers can begin soon.

Compared to many other states, Kerala has seen a huge increase in vehicle inflation in recent times. It is common for people, including patients, to suffer at the railway gates as they are unable to proceed. Governments are building expressways and world-class state highways across the country only for smooth travel.