Overview
- An NHAI official reported 72,000 vehicles at Panthangi on Saturday and nearly 55,000 at Keesera in the past 24 hours, with a local tally placing Panthangi’s Saturday flow near one lakh.
- Operators opened extra toll gates, accelerated FASTag processing, and deployed patrol vehicles, cranes and ambulances at Panthangi, Korlapahad and Chillakallu to manage the surge.
- Police supervised flows at key exits such as LB Nagar and urged alternate routes via Bhongir, while diversions were put in place for traffic toward Khammam and Rajahmundry.
- Ongoing road works and bottlenecks, including the Nandigama Y‑junction, stretched travel times to hours, as HGCL managed ORR choke points and reported roughly two lakh vehicles across three ORR plazas over two days.
- TGSRTC and APSRTC rolled out thousands of special buses and Hyderabad rail stations were packed under RPF oversight, as Telangana sought toll‑free passage from January 9–18 and officials flagged a likely return‑rush peak on January 18.