Private and KSRTC buses brazenly disregard rules by taking the Ponnurunni Railway Overbridge underpass to reach Vyttila.
Commuting through the underpass and the service road leading to Vyttila has become a nightmare with the errant bus drivers flouting rules with impunity. With little surveillance by the police and the Motor Vehicles Department, chances of a major accident in this region have increased.
On Monday, the rear of a super fast KSRTC bus rammed the parapet of the underpass and swerved to the left before regaining control. The driver refused to stop the vehicle despite protests from the local residents for his reckless and negligent driving.
A week before that, a bus of the Tamil Nadu State Road Transport Corporation caused a traffic snarl at the underpass when it failed to make it through the narrow service road. KSRTC and private buses coming from Kadavantra and Kathrikadavu flout norms by taking the Subhash Bose Road and trespassing through the Ponnurunni underpass to reach Vyttila.
Both these buses, which began the journey from the main depot in the city, should have taken the Sahodaran Ayappan Road-Kadavantra- route to reach Vyttila before moving towards its destination. Instead, they took the Subhash Bose Road from Kadavantra to reach Vyttila hub in clear violation of the rules.
Reacting to the incident involving the KSRTC bus that took the Ponnurunni underpass to reach Vyttila, Station Master of KSRTC Ernakulam depot A.T. Shibu said permission had been given to a few buses from the main depot to ply through the Salim Rajan Railway Overbridge but these vehicles should not take a diversion through Subhash Bose Road but take the Kadavantra route to reach Vyttila.
Even though the police have banned buses from taking the Ponnurunni and Vyttila railway overbridge under pass, violations seem to be on the rise. There are no signboards at the beginning of Subhash Bose Road warning that buses should not take the route to reach Vyttila.
Chaos also prevails along the service roads of Ponnurunni Railway Overbridge often when two-wheelers and car drivers coming from Thammanam take the U-turn to access the service road to Kadavantra. The vehicles struggle to complete the turn, as the service road remains narrow. Traffic congestion is also experienced at Thammanam junction, thanks to the bottlenecks in the area created mostly by illegal parking of vehicles.
