Telangana: Massive traffic jams choke roads to Elkathurthy

Vehicular movement comes to a near standstill for several hours, leaving former Ministers, elected representatives and other attendees on their way to BRS public meeting stranded alike

Warangal: Chaos gripped the roads leading to Elkathurthy on Sunday as tens of thousands of BRS activists and public headed for a massive public meeting, leading to traffic jams stretching over 20 km at Rangampalli near Siddipet and nearly 15 km along the Mamnoor-Hasanparthy-Elkathurthy route.

Movement came to a near standstill for several hours, leaving former Ministers, elected representatives and other attendees stranded alike.

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In addition to Warangal roads, the Hyderabad-Warangal Outer Ring Road (ORR) exit near Ghatkesar also witnessed heavy congestion due to the flood of vehicles moving towards the rally from Hyderabad and surrounding areas.

Former Minister T Harish Rao personally stepped down from his vehicle and helped clear the jam at Rangampalli along the route to Elkathurthy, while former Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav remained stuck barely 2 km from the venue. Around 12 km of traffic was reported to have been completely stalled on key stretches.

Irked over police mismanagement, scores of participants abandoned their vehicles and began walking towards the venue from Mamnoor for nearly 2 km. They police were accused of intentionally diverting the vehicles at Elkathurthy junction towards Damera road, rather than letting them reach the meeting venue. BRS leaders repeatedly made announcements from the meeting dais, urging the police not to create unnecessary obstructions and to allow the public to reach the venue without hurdles, but in vain.

The situation worsened after police permitted private lorries during the day, compounding the gridlock. At several places like , the police along with transport officials conducted checking of private buses deployed to ferry public to the meeting and stalled the buses for several hours. They were allowed to leave only after the BRS leaders intervened and cases were booked against the buses on various charges including having BRS stickers on them.