Traffic came to a standstill in the city as agitating students clogged roads following the 'Chalo Assembly' call.
Following the 'Chalo Assembly' call given by the Telangana Students Joint Action Committee under the command of Prof. Kodandaram, all the principal roads of the city came under police barricades and traffic was thrown out of gear.
The impact of the road diversions spill-over was immediate and chaotic.
Buses, cars, two-wheelers and auto-rickshaws competed with each other to hurry and dart into lanes and bylanes to avoid being caught in the traffic jam. The result was dramatic with most arterial roads also being clogged with vehicles.
Commuters were seen waiting patiently, hoping that the traffic flow would resume, and cursing whoever they held responsible for the jams.
The roads leading to and around the Assembly premises, besides the lanes and other arteries, particularly at Nampally and Lakdi-ka-pul junctions, were clogged.
The worst hit areas were Nampally, Lakdi-ka-pul, Himaythnagar, Basheerbagh, Abids, Afzalgunj, Osmangunj, Khairtabad, Rajbhavan Road, Ameerpet, Panjagutta and the arteries of these major roads.
"I got stranded in the traffic jam near Himayathnagar for more than 50 minutes. The gridlocked traffic made it impossible to move ahead or go back," said Kalyan, a regular commuter.
For Laiq Bhai, an auto-rickshaw driver, it was a dreadful 3 hours in the peak morning hours. He said, "There was a breakdown of an RTC bus in the middle of the Gandhi Bhavan Road at Nampally, further complicating matters. The fumes of fuel and the stench from garbage dumps made my passengers almost vomit. It was a living hell for us all."
The situation continued in Ameerpet and Khairtabad. "The roads and the traffic are so bad here. Such sudden jams make commuting by road a horror", said another commuter.
"The sudden traffic diversions had to imposed in view of the call given by the JAC students so that proceedings inside the House can pass off peacefully,'' explained a traffic police officer.
The traffic jams were the results of the police being forced to resort to putting up the barricades when protesting students divided themselves into two groups, and chose to reach the Assembly from two different routes.
Courtesy: INN