Hyderabad: With many political bigwigs holding public meetings and road shows in different parts of the city, as the election campaign reached its last leg, traffic in and around the city was brought to its knees on Monday.
Although students and children were saved from the blues with the day declared a holiday for educational institutions, employees, particularly those returning from work, were the worst affected.
Karthik Ch., employed in a multinational company, said this was one of his worst experiences. “Police were there all over but they were seemingly keener on making an easy passage for the political rallies. Neither the police nor the leaders are bothered about the common man,” he said, after he was stuck near Begumpet for over 30 minutes.
“In some places, police personnel were seen trying to regularise rallies but their attempts fell on deaf ears. At one such rally in Yousufguda, police were telling the organisers to speed up but to no avail”, said Ramakrishna.
Similar chaotic scenes were witnessed in Secunderabad, Uppal, Kukatpally, Lingampally, Gachibowli, Tolichowki, Attapur and several parts of the Old City. The worst affected were localities adjacent to RTC X roads and Kacheguda due to the roadshow of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Its impact was felt till Narayanguda, Chaderghat, Vidyanagar, Nallakunta on the one side and Musheerabad, Ramnagar and Kavadiguda on the other.
The situation was the same outside all party offices as there was a heavy rush of vehicles and party workers. At Telangana Bhavan, traffic movement was very slow in the surrounding roads. Heavy flow of vehicles blocked movement of common people around Gandhi Bhavan and the BJP office in Nampally.
Traffic was thrown out of gear even in the outskirts, especially at Patancheru, Chevella, Shadnagar, Shamshabad and Maheshwaram.
Those travelling in RTC buses were also worst affected as in many places, city buses got stuck in traffic and diverted without prior information. The diversions were seen in places where the Prime Minister was touring.
A traffic advisory was issued for the Prime Minister’s roadshow from RTC X Roads to Kacheguda, but no advisories were given with respect to the Prime Minister’s visit to Gurudwara Sahib at Ameerpet where him offered prayers on the occasion of Gurunanak Jayanti, and also to the NTR stadium to take part in the Koti Deepotsavam Karthika Masam event.
Jayasree, a private employee working at Secunderabad, said their buses were stopped at Begumpet for the Prime Minister’s movement. It took more than an hour to cross Ameerpet, she added.
RTC buses and all regular traffic were blocked towards Ameerpet road and diverted into other roads. Hyderabad traffic police gave continuous updates on X about slow traffic movement and roads to be avoided.
Affected areas
Panjagutta to Secunderabad
Mettuguda to Uppal
Panjagutta to Khairatabad
Masab Tank to Lakdikapul
Mehdipatnam to Masab tank
Panjagutta to SR nagar
Cantonment areas
Raj Bhavan Road
Amberpet
Nallakunta
Vidyanagar
Ramnagar
Musheerabad
RTC X roads
Narayanaguda
YMCA
Himayat Nagar
Kacheguda
Nimboli Adda
Chaderghat
All roads around NTR stadium
Tank Bund
Nampally
