A large number of people, who have made city their home for education, job or for any other purpose, are headed home for Sankranti festival, causing a slowdown of the traffic on city roads.
Almost all roads are over-crowded and the Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS) and the Vijayawada railway station are chock-a-block with the home-bound crowd.
At the bus station, there is no place to sit or even stand still at one place. People are forced to elbow out others to find their way ahead in the milling crowd.
A large number of students comprise the festival rush, heading home with their backpacks. The cloak room is bursting at the seams with large chunks of baggages deposited out in the open space.
Come festival season and private bus operators make a killing by increasing the fares by more than 100%. Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) has pressed into service 2,000 additional buses to cater to the transport needs of the travelling public.
The RTC, which is reeling under serious financial crisis and leaving no stone unturned to shore up its revenue, has made elaborate plans for the festival season.
Switching to a mission mode, the RTC is doing all it could to make the best of the season. “For effective and hassle-free movement of the special services, 60 officers have been deployed at the key bus stations in Hyderabad,” says Chief Traffic Manager K.S. Brahmananda Reddy.
The officers have been given supervisors and security persons to ensure smooth functioning of the services. These monitoring officers have fanned out in BHEL (Keertimahal), Bollaram X Road, KPHB point, S.R. Nagar, Ameerpet, Kachiguda, Old CBS Hanger, Araamghar point, Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station, LB Nager, Vanasthalipuram, ECIL-AS Rao Nagar, Jeedimetla, Ramoji Film City and Amberpet.
Eight officers are appointed at the MGBS for live-tracking of the vehicles, providing information to the public and solving complaints immediately and in an amicable way, if any.
On Saturday, the RTC operated 550 special buses from Hyderabad.
Special trains
To clear additional rush of passengers in railway stations, the South Central Railway authorities have introduced 203 special trains operated in various directions, mainly between the twin cities of Hyderabad to AP cities like Vijayawada, Rajamahendravaram, Kakinada, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Tirupati, till January 25.
Of these special trains, 60 are fully unreserved second class Jansadharan trains, exclusively for passengers who arrive at the station in the last minute. The fares of Jansadharan special trains are on par with general second class fares of regular express trains.