The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Prime Minister’s visit throws traffic haywire

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Prime Minister’s visit throws traffic haywire

Staff Reporter

Vehicles stopped in all lanes along VVIP route

VVIP journey begins at peak hour
Traffic police barricade all openings

— Photo: Mohd.Yousuf

No movement: Rally by political parties adds to the traffic chaos on the Himayathnagar-Hyderguda-Basheerbagh road on Tuesday.

HYDERABAD: Vehicular traffic came to a halt and people got stranded for hours in the heart of city as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set out for a review meeting on developmental works here on Tuesday.

With the police stopping vehicles at every lane and by-lane all along the VVIP’s route much before his arrival, the traffic went totally haywire from 10 a.m.

Utter chaos prevailed as traffic police failed to alert public in advance about the restrictions on vehicular movement.

People taken unawares

Since the VVIP’s journey began at a peak hour (10 a.m.), and that too on one of the busiest routes of Raj Bhavan-Kharatabad-Secretariat-Assembly, the traffic flow on all the link roads too was badly hit. Irate commuters taken unawares by the sudden restrictions and jams, picked up arguments with traffic policemen at several places.

With the Prime Minister’s convoy also passing beneath under the Telugu Talli fly-over near the Secretariat, traffic was halted at the Ambedkar statue near Liberty and Banda at the Maisamma temple on the lower Tank Bund as well for considerable period of time.

This forced all the vehicles coming from Secunderabad and other northern parts of the city into Hyderabad via the upper Tank Bund to come to a grinding halt. Some commuters from Secunderabad took to the Necklace Road as an alternative route only to be stopped for more than a half hour at the rotary near Prasad’s I-max theatre or the NTR Park.

“We had no clue about the traffic restrictions and whichever road we took we got stuck,” complained Ajay, a businessman of Domalguda.

The traffic police had barricaded all the openings along the divider on the Necklace road making people to take a circuitous route.

For instance, those coming from Secretariat and going towards Adarshnagar had to travel till the Necklace Road rotary and then take ‘U’ turn amidst the snail paced vehicular movement.

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