Short vacation, new mall lead to traffic woes on JNTU-Kukatpally road

Hyderabad: Heavy traffic on the JNTU-Kukatpally left commuters stranded on the road for nearly an hour on Friday. The long weekend — Monday is a holiday for Gandhi Jayanti — to be a major factor with people rushing to leave the city either for short vacations or to go to their native places.

The attraction of a new mall may have added to the rush.

The traffic jam started at about 6 pm, said Satheesh Kumar, a resident of Nizampet. Traffic was gridlocked from Kukatpally to Nizampet via KPHB and JNTU. “It’s incredibly frustrating to spend so much time stuck in traffic,” he added.

Ramesh, another commuter, said: "I've been sitting in my car for more than one hour now.. It's a common sight, but it doesn't make it any less annoying. We are finding alternative routes but we ended up stuck in the traffic for long time now.”

Kukatpally traffic police inspector Venkatesh said, "Due to the continuous holidays, all the malls are crowded with people, resulting in heavy traffic on the roads. We're making our best efforts to manage the situation, but it's taking more time than usual."