Hyderabad-Vijayawada: Dussehra Rush Chokes Highways: 50,000+ Vehicles Flood NH-65 and NH-163

With thousands of people hitting the roads to head home for the Vijayadashami festival, long traffic snarls were reported on Wednesday along the Hyderabad-Vijayawada National Highway (NH-65) and other major routes.

In Choutuppal town of Choutuppal district, vehicles were lined up for several kilometers, creating a bottleneck from the town to nearby villages. The Pantangi toll plaza in Choutuppal mandal witnessed heavy congestion, with vehicles backed up at multiple entry points. Out of the 16 lanes at the toll gate, traffic bound for Vijayawada was channeled through 10 gates to manage the rush.

Also Read: Festive Rush Grips Hyderabad as Dussehra Nears; TGSRTC, SCR Add Special Services

Officials noted that while NH-65 typically handles around 30,000 vehicles on a normal day, an additional 20,000 vehicles were recorded on Wednesday due to the holiday exodus.

Similar scenes played out at the Gudur toll plaza on NH-163 (Hyderabad–Bhupalpally) in Bibinagar mandal of Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district. Normally, about 19,000 vehicles pass through daily, but the number swelled by another 4,000, bringing the total to around 23,000–25,000 during the festival period. To ease the bottleneck, toll operators opened two extra lanes in addition to the six already functioning on the Warangal side.

Despite the diversions and additional lanes, the sheer volume of traffic caused long delays for commuters. Authorities, however, said the measures had helped prevent a complete gridlock and assured that traffic flow would gradually ease after the peak festival days.