Shobha yatra throws traffic into chaos in several parts of Hyderabad
Over 10,000 police personnel were deployed.
Hyderabad: Hanuman Jayanti shobha yatra which started from Karmanghat on Saturday morning, around 10.30 am, led to traffic congestions in several parts of the city. The procession ended at Tadbund in Secunderabad in the evening.
“Around 10,000-11,000 police personnel were deployed for bandobast, which included teams of Civil Police, Task Force, Crime Teams, Anti-Sabotage, Rapid Action Force, Telangana State Special Police and Armed Reserve,” the commissioner of police, Hyderabad, Anjani Kumar said.
The city police installed more than 400 CCTV cameras along the 20-22 kilometres stretch of the yatra, each one of which was being monitored at the control room personally by the Police Commissioner of Hyderabad.
“Along with Hyderabad Police Commissioner, officials from the GHMC, HMDA, Electricity, EMRI and FireD, along with 108 ambulances were present. Higher officials were deployed over the stretch to monitor the yatra,” a spokesperson from the Police Commissioner’s office said.
There were 15 tributary processions from various parts of Hyderabad City and Cyberabad that joined the Central procession from Gowliguda Ram Mandir to Secunderabad Tadbund, Sri Hanuman Mandir Via, Putlibowli cross roads, Koti, Sultan Bazar, Kachiguda, Narayanguda, YMCA, Chikkadpally, RTC cross roads, Gandhinagar, Kavadiguda, Bible House, City Light Hotel, Sunnipura Mosque, Subhash Road, Ujjaini Mahankali Temple, Ramgopalpet, Paradise, CTO Junction, Imperial Garden, Sri Hanuman Temple of Tadbund and Secunderabad.
Traffic woes in view of the yatra irked the regular commuters who had to cross the main junctions. Though police had officially announced to take alternate routes, many city roads saw a slow movement of traffic.
“The traffic flow, during the evening rush hour, caused congestions near Patny and Paradise route, which is the route taken by the working professionals to return home in the evening hours,” a traffic policeman told this newspaper.
Motorists, who regularly commute through the busy roads, had to take alternate routes.
The traffic moved at a snail’s pace on the Panty-Paradise flyover stretch throughout the evening. The RTC buses were also running behind the schedule due to the alternate routes and diversions.