Dilapidated bus shelter posing danger to commuters demolished in Mallappally

Mallappally: A dilapidated bus waiting shelter at the CMS Higher Secondary School Junction, which had long posed a serious safety hazard to commuters and pedestrians, has finally been demolished.

The demolition was carried out by the local grama panchayat. Decades old and severely weakened, portions of the crumbling structure had already been dismantled by local residents years ago. However, commuters and school students frequently took shelter under the remaining section.

With the structure on the verge of collapse at any moment, authorities decided to raze it entirely. A year ago, alternative bus shelters were constructed, one on Mallappally Road by autorickshaw workers and another on Ranni Road by the Kerala Students Union (KSU).

Navigating this critical junction, where the Kottayam–Kozhencherry State Highway intersects with the Mallappally Puvanakkadavu–Cherukolpuzha Road, has long been a harrowing experience for motorists due to the narrow carriageway. The removal of the shed is expected to ease bottlenecks and improve visibility to a considerable extent.

Heavy vehicles coming from the Cherukolpuzha route face significant difficulty turning toward Kozhencherry. Large tipper trucks often have to reverse mid-turn to complete the maneuver, creating serious accident risks. With a major school situated right next to the junction, hundreds of students are forced to cross the road under constant peril.

Meanwhile, defunct telephone poles, stripped of their cables years ago, continue to be an accident trap for motorists. During recent concrete paving alongside the tarred edge of the road, one such pole was left embedded directly inside the paved shoulder. It poses an immediate danger to traffic arriving from the Kozhencherry side, as it lacks warning reflectors or hazard markings. Following the demolition of the bus shelter, the risk of vehicles crashing into this now-exposed pole has grown even higher.