Sankranthi travel rush chokes Hyderabad roads, toll plazas see long queues

Hyderabad witnessed heavy traffic ahead of the Sankranthi festival as families began travelling to their hometowns. Toll plazas, highways, bus stations and railway stations saw massive congestion, with delays of several hours reported at key toll booths and transport hubs.

Hyderabad: Heading towards the Sankranti festive season, Hyderabad is witnessing heavy traffic movement with scores of families starting to travel to their home towns for the festival.

The increased vehicular movement started on Friday evening with Saturday and Sunday being holidays and several of the arterial roads connecting the highways leading to districts of Telangana and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh teemed with traffic.

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According to information available, the toll plazas and key transport hubs are witnessing heavy congestion. Hundreds of vehicles queued up amid huge rush at all toll plazas on the National Highways, particularly those connecting to Vijayawada and other areas of Andhra Pradesh.

Toll plazas at the Outer Ring Road (ORR), Shamshabad, Bongulur and Pedda Amberpet witnessed serpentine queues from Saturday morning. Apart from these toll booths, Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited (HGCL) authorities arranged booster barriers to handle heavy rush.

Long queues and massive congestion at Panthangi Toll Plaza resulted in a two-to-three-hour delay to cross the toll booths. As a result, traffic jams occurred from 8 am onwards at this toll plaza. A similar situation was also seen at Korlapahad toll plazas, with inordinate delays lasting hours.

Apart from the piling up of personal vehicles being used by families for travel, TGSRTC and APSRTC buses too were caught in traffic jams and ran hours behind their schedule. Meanwhile, trucks were also stuck in the queues, causing further delays at the toll plazas.

Passengers rush in railway stations and bus stations:

Meanwhile, key bus stations of the city, including MG Bus Station, JBS, and others, were packed with passengers from the early hours. The district buses were packed with passengers even as the TGSRTC announced special buses for the festive season.

Secunderabad Railway Station and Kacheguda Railway Station also saw a rush on all the platforms. The passenger rush is expected on Sunday, too, with outbound passenger movement.

On Friday night and Saturday morning, important stretches at the IT Corridor leading to toll plazas experienced traffic jams.