Hundreds of fisherfolk protesting against the Adani group’s Vizhinjam seaport in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday forced trucks laden with rocks to turn back after blocking the road to the project site despite repeated attempts by police to convince them to allow the vehicles to resume work stalled for over 100 days.

The police were trying to implement a direction from Kerala High Court to ensure free movement of manpower and materials to the seaport construction site. But the protesters refused to budge.

While considering separate petitions filed by Vizhinjam Adani Port Pvt Ltd and Howe Engineering Projects (I) Pvt Ltd, the high court had ordered the Kerala government to ensure there were no law-and-order issues due to the protest and warned the protesters of tough measures if they didn’t remove the obstacles.

Work at the port has been suspended since August 16 when the protesters pitched a tent on the road leading to the seaport’s main gate. The protesters accused the state government of not fulfilling some key demands, including commissioning a transparent study on the coastal erosion caused by the under-construction seaport that has left hundreds of fisher-families homeless and thousands affected.

Around 10.30am on Saturday when work was to resume, hundreds of protesters, a good number of them women, squatted on the road and stopped the trucks that were queued up to gain access to the project site.

Although peace was restored after the trucks were sent back, a counter-protest by some people in favour of the seaport threatened to spiral out of hand when they started heckling the fisherfolk. Both groups resorted to hurling stones and jostled with the police.

A spokesperson for the Adani Vizhinjam Port Pvt Ltd told The Telegraph that the trucks were sent to a nearby location after the company’s security head received a call from the city police commissioner.

“The commissioner requested our security head to remove the trucks to avoid any law-and-order issue,” the spokesperson said.

A total of 50 trucks were caught in the protest. “There were 25 trucks laden with rocks while there were another 25 that have been stuck inside the project site since the protest began (on August 16). We need to press these empty trucks into service to get much-needed construction materials for the project,” the spokesperson said.

He said that the company would inform the high court about Saturday’s developments when the matter comes up for hearing on Monday.

The fisherfolk under the leadership of the Latin Archdiocese of Trivandrum have been protesting for over 100 days against the Adani Vizhinjam Port Pvt Ltd, being built under a public-private partnership with the Kerala government. The Rs 7,525-crore project will be India’s deepest port.

The protesters have blamed the seaport for massive coastal erosion in the area that has destroyed homes of hundreds of fisherfolk who have been accommodated in a godown for four years with no proper rehabilitation. Unusually high waves allegedly caused by the breakwater of the port have killed several fishermen as their boats capsized.