With lakhs of people heading to their respective native places to celebrate the festival of Sankranti or Pongal this weekend, the roads of Hyderabad city will be free of the usual mad rush.
Traffic was thin in all parts of city as the vehicular traffic fell drastically on Thursday. However, there was a huge rush at all the major railway station and two main bus terminals as the families joined the long queues to head towards the native places, mostly the districts of Telangana as well as Andhra Pradesh.
In the annual tradition the South Central Railway was running special trains to deal with the rush. Similarly, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation was running hundreds of special buses to ease the congestion. In an unusual move the SCR authorities have doubled the platform ticket from Rs 10 to Rs 20 to discourage large number of people coming to see off their relatives.
With many families travelling by their own vehicles there also rush on all the roads leading out of Hyderabad and there were long queues at all the toll plazas.
Authorities say that they were also getting ready for the return rush from evening of January 16. Schools have colleges have declared holiday till Tuesday.
Government and private employees including the workers of IT companies have also taken leave to extend their holidays to spend more time with their families back home. According to the IT industry source of more than 4 lakh software engineers, 30 to 40 percent have gone on extended leave.
The rush for Sankranti has not only made life easy for the traffic on the roads but offices and other public places were also appearing deserted.
On the other hands the residents of Hyderabad were also gearing up for the colorful festival of kites and the shops in the old city and the Begum Bazar were buzzing with the kite lovers. Telangana Government has organised not only a Kite Festival but also a Sweet Festival where more than three hundred outlets have come up serving different sweet dishes and savories of local varieties.
Meanwhile, the police in Hyderabad and neighboring Cyberabad and Rachakonda commissionerates have increased their patrolling specially in those areas where large number of families have gone to their native places for the festival.
The police have issued warning to such families that they should fully secure their homes and properly lock them before leaving the city. In some areas they also asked the people to inform the local police station about their travel plans. The precautionary measures were taken in view of many instances of burglars targeting such houses in the past.