Overview
- Traffic swelled to festival-season highs with 72,000 vehicles at Panthangi and about 55,000 at Keesara in 24 hours, slowing movement and stretching travel times.
- Authorities opened additional booths, accelerated FASTag processing, and deployed patrol vehicles, cranes and ambulances at key choke points including Pantangi, Korlapahad and Chillakallu.
- At Kalaparru in Eluru district, closed gates were lifted on orders from MLA Chintamaneni Prabhakar, citing National Highway norms to prevent long queues.
- Hyderabad’s exit hubs, notably LB Nagar, saw heavy backups as police cleared encroachments, removed illegal parking and stationed extra personnel to manage flows.
- The state transport corporations rolled out thousands of special buses, and Telangana’s roads minister sought temporary toll-free passage from January 9 to 18 to ease the rush.