Heavy Vehicle Rush on Hyderabad-Vijayawada NH Road

Vijayawada: A heavy rush of vehicles on Saturday led to road blockades for hours together on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada National Highway. Notably, several families/persons from Andhra Pradesh living and working in Telangana set out for their hometowns to cast their votes for the May 13 elections.

The vehicular traffic has increased at the Chillakallu and Keesara toll plazas in the Jaggayyapeta and Nandigama mandals of NTR district.

Meanwhile, APSRTC is operating 2,731 buses including 1,048 special services and 1,683 regular services from Hyderabad to various parts of AP between May 8 and 12 to transport the passengers and clear the additional rush during the elections season.

APSRTC chairman and MD, Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, said the additional bus services will run from various depots of Hyderabad to various parts of AP to clear the passenger rush for the elections. The special buses were being operated from May 8 to May 12. Normal fares will be charged from passengers travelling by these special services.

The transport corporation is operating 255 special buses along with 1,239 regular buses from Bangalore to various parts of AP between May 8 and 12.

Tirumala Rao said the transport corporation is making arrangements to run additional bus services from Vijayawada to Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Tirupati, Nellore, Kakinada, Eluru, Ongole, Guntur and other districts based on the passenger rush.

It will deploy additional buses considering the passenger rush on Hyderabad-Vijayawada routes.

The RTC chief asked the RTC regional managers of the respective districts to deploy additional buses to clear the passenger rush after the polling concludes on May 13.

With vehicular traffic moving at a snail's pace at the Chillakallu and Keesara toll plazas on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada National Highway, people faced severe inconvenience as their vehicles were stranded for nearly four to five hours on Saturday.