Sankranti spirit engulfs Hyderabad

Sankranti spirit engulfs Hyderabad

With only one day left for Sankranti, commuters are facing long travel hours owing to massive jams on national highways and arterial roads criss-crossing the city. The festive energy was in full swing in Hyderabad on Sunday.

People flocked to sweet shops and kite stalls, and prominent transit points, including Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS), Jubilee Bus Station (JBS), Lakdi-ka-pul, Mehdipatnam, Ameerpet and Uppal, were choc-a-block with passengers, who were seen elbowing out others to find their way to their buses. The roads connecting these locations turned deep red on Google Maps and experienced bumper-to-bumper traffic.

B. Akhil, 23, a software engineer working at Gachibowli missed the bus to his hometown Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh despite starting considerably earlier than the scheduled departure.

“Though the pickup point was only four kilometres from my place, I left 45 minutes before the bus was scheduled to depart and still failed to make it on time. I had to ask the driver to leave without me. I then took the Metro to Ameerpet and managed to get there in 30 minutes, while the bus only arrived an hour later. I finally boarded the bus at 11:45 p.m.,” Akhil shared.

Kireeti Prapulla, 23, also a software employee at Gachibowli had to take car sharing service to reach his native Rajahmundry, which cost him ₹4,000. “No other option was feasible. Buses and trains were booked out and the roads to reach them were jam-packed. We started around 10.30 p.m. and took the Outer Ring Road (ORR) instead of travelling through the city. Except for a line at the toll plaza, the ride was smooth,” Kireeti said.

Unlike the key transit points, the usually-packed city roads remained relatively empty as Sankranti holidays coincided with the weekend. “The morning was nostalgic for me and my father as it took us less than 50 minutes to cover 30 kilometres from Nacharam to Kondapur, which is usually a 1.5-hour drive. However, I spent over 20 minutes just to cover 200 metres at JBS which was filled with buses,” said K. Sushil, 27, a private employee.

“There was less traffic across the city due to several factors, including the outflux of Andhra natives due to Sankranti and the long weekend. Apart from areas around Parade Grounds due to the kite festival, we expect the traffic to be smooth,” said N. Ashok Kumar, DCP Traffic-II Hyderabad. Around 800 traffic police officials (45-50% of the total workforce) are deployed at any given time for traffic management and enforcement, he added.