With educational institutes closed for a week for Sankranti festival, most residents preferred to drive in own vehicles to their native places, resulting in snail-paced movement of traffic on all thoroughfares in Hyderabad on Friday.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
Hyderabad’s roads came under heavy strain on Friday evening as the annual Sankranti exodus gathered momentum, with a surge in buses and private vehicles heading out of the city and swelling crowds at railway stations and bus terminals.
Traffic police said congestion intensified as the weekend coincided with the start of festival holidays from Saturday, turning the evening hours into peak travel time. A steady stream of long-distance buses, private cars and cabs led to slow-moving traffic across several arterial roads, prompting authorities to step up deployment across the city.
According to the traffic control room of Hyderabad traffic police, the worst-hit stretches since Friday evening included the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) – Dilsukhnagar corridor towards Vijayawada, areas around the Secunderabad and Kacheguda railway stations, the SR Nagar–Lakdikapul stretch, the Mehdipatnam route from Rethibowli towards Attapur via Aramghar, and bus terminals at Ameerpet and the JBS Parade Ground.
Additional traffic personnel were deployed across the Hyderabad commissionerate to manage the surge and ease bottlenecks at major junctions. The traffic snarls were felt by even those making a regular commute from Gachibowli towards Hyderabad city, with citizens reporting waiting times of up to 20 minutes on the Mehdipatnam stretch.
In Cyberabad, which houses the IT corridor, traffic volumes also rose sharply as large numbers of IT employees began leaving the city for the festival. Congestion was reported in Kukatpally, Moosapet, JNTU, Miyapur and along the RC Puram route, with key choke points at Miyapur X Roads, the Patancheru Outer Ring Road Exit 3 rotary and Medchal, where the festive rush has been compounded by ongoing highway works.
To manage the situation, the commissionerate held a coordination meeting with bus operators earlier this week and instructed Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) and Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) drivers to halt only at designated bus stops and move immediately after boarding passengers. Private travel operators were asked to shift pick-up points away from busy junctions to less crowded locations, with specific directions to move pick-up and drop points from Miyapur X Roads to the Miyapur metro bus stop.
Officials also directed private bus operators to park vehicles in a single column rather than side by side on roads. Senior traffic officials said special attention was being paid to private buses operating from Kukatpally, Miyapur and Gachibowli, as well as Lingampally railway station, where footfall has increased steadily.
A higher number of traffic personnel has been deployed on the Balanagar–RC Puram stretch, which is being used by a majority of outbound buses.
Traffic began peaking from 7.30 p.m. and is expected to remain heavy until midnight or 1 a.m. To ease congestion within the city, some buses have been directed to take Outer Ring Road exits and avoid entering interior city roads.
Published – January 10, 2026 12:08 am IST
