Hyderabad traffic gridlock intensified on October 17 as the annual Dasara exodus overwhelmed major bus terminals, arterial roads and highways connecting the city with towns and villages across Telangana and neighbouring states, according to a report by Deccan Chronicle. Tens of thousands of citizens travelled towards their native places, creating long queues around transport hubs and severe bottlenecks on key inter-district routes.
The Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station, Jubilee Bus Station and the Dilsukhnagar transport area recorded heavy passenger footfall from the early hours. The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation deployed additional buses to manage the surge, but boarding bays and surrounding roads remained heavily crowded through the day.
The congestion extended well beyond the city’s bus terminals. A large volume of private cars, buses and commercial vehicles added pressure to highways leading out of Hyderabad. On the Hyderabad–Vijayawada Highway, or NH-65, traffic reportedly remained severely congested for several kilometres in Nalgonda district.
Construction work on a new flyover at Chityal further restricted movement on the corridor. Traffic came to a standstill near Choutuppal and Borralagudem, leaving motorists stranded for more than an hour, the report said. The combination of festive travel and reduced road capacity turned a predictable seasonal surge into a prolonged disruption for road users.
Commuters also raised concerns about the absence of active traffic personnel and highway patrol teams at key bottlenecks. Their complaints point to an operational challenge that accompanies festival travel each year: additional public transport capacity can move more passengers, but it does not by itself prevent congestion at terminal approaches, construction zones, toll plazas and highway junctions.
The Hyderabad–Hanamkonda Highway also experienced significant delays, with vehicles moving slowly through long queues at the Yadadri toll plaza. The corridor is an important connection for passengers travelling towards northern Telangana, and the toll plaza became another pressure point as private and commercial traffic increased.
The disruption highlights how Hyderabad’s festive mobility system depends on several agencies operating together. Bus operators must add services, traffic police must regulate access roads, highway authorities must manage construction diversions, and patrol teams must respond quickly when queues extend across junctions. A weakness at any one of these points can affect traffic far beyond the original location of the bottleneck.
For travellers, the immediate impact was longer journey times, crowded terminals and uncertainty over movement on routes out of the city. The report did not provide a total number of additional buses deployed by TGSRTC or details of any revised traffic diversions. Further official information on traffic management measures and the duration of the road restrictions was not available in the supplied report.
