Five day holiday keeps Hyderabad streets deserted

Hyderabad: The city looked deserted on Wednesday thanks to the long holiday. Even the busiest roads at Begumpet, Khairatabad, Panjagutta, Ameerpet, Tolichowki, Mehdipatnam, Dilsukhnagar, Koti, Abids, Lakdi-ka-Pul, Paradise, Patny, LB Nagar were empty.

Hyderabad and Cyberabad Traffic Police pages, which are usually buzzing with updates about traffic snarls across the city were idle on Wednesday with hardly any updates.

The situation will most probably continue throughout the week with many people heading out for the holiday. This, meanwhile, has led to the fares of private buses heading for the districts soaring.

An AC sleeper bus ticket to Vijayawada from Hyderabad, which usually costs Rs 1,200-Rs 1,500 now costs Rs 3,000 and more. Private bus operators also say that they have increased the number of buses to Vijayawada.

“We have diverted a few buses, which used to ply to other southern states to meet the demand. Still, the demand is high. The prices are competitive and almost the same across the board. It is so because most of the private firm employees were uncertain about their leave and the last-minute bookings increased,” a private tour operator who added five more buses to Vijayawada, said.

Prices for almost all categories of tickets, including non-ac, have doubled. Surprisingly, prices were almost the same for the Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad-Vijayawada sectors.

Apart from the rush at bus stations, railway stations too were jam-packed as South Central Railway added 100 special trains, resulting in an overall 50,000 additional berths.