The Hyderabad-Vijayawada national highway witnessed a heavy traffic jam on Saturday due to the Sankranthi festival rush.
There was a 1-kilometer-long traffic jam on the highway.
Several important roads in Hyderabad also witnessed heavy to very heavy traffic jams as hordes of people began to leave the city for destinations in Andhra Pradesh.
Other highways saw the same situation. The Pathangi toll plaza in Nalgonda district on National Highway 65 also witnessed a heavy traffic jam, with vehicle queues being over a kilometre and it taking almost 10 hours for passengers to reach Vijayawada from Hyderabad instead of the usual five hours. It was taking almost three minutes for the toll plaza staff to collect the toll from vehicle users.
Vehicles also piled up at the Gudur toll plaza on the Hyderabad-Warangal highway in Yadadri-Bhongir district.
The toll plazas were witnessing a heavy rush of vehicles from Friday midnight and it continued until 9 am. The thick fog also contributed to the slow movement of the vehicles on the National Highway due to poor vision. After 9 am, there was some relief to the motorists.
The authorities are expecting that the rush of vehicles at the toll plazas will be high after Saturday midnight again, and decided to open more gates for the vehicles going towards Vijayawada.