Hyderabad: Hyderabad witnessed heavy traffic congestion on Monday morning, as vehicle movement along the highway outside the Outer Ring Road (ORR) came to a standstill for hours. The post-Dasara rush after the long weekend added to the gridlock, forcing commuters to leave their vehicles behind and head to nearby Metro stations, particularly those located near major railway and bus terminals.According to Metro officials, the LB Nagar station alone recorded a footfall of over 25,000, nearly 10,000 more than its usual daily average. To control the crowd, station authorities briefly halted the use of escalators and elevators, resulting in passengers waiting nearly two hours just to reach the platforms. “It was almost impossible to move inside the station. People were standing shoulder to shoulder, and the queue for tokens stretched all the way outside, to the footpath,” said Ravi Kumar, a commuter returning from his hometown to Mettuguda.Another passenger, Divya D, who had to leave her car at LB Nagar due to the traffic, said, “There was hardly any breathing space on the platforms. It took me almost 30 minutes just to get past the ticket scanner. Even the trains were overcrowded; many of us had to skip two to three trains before we could finally board one, only to commute standing.”Other busy stations — including MGBS, Raidurg, Secunderabad East, and Mettuguda — also reported a noticeable rise in passenger footfall as people returned to the city by bus and train. “While we were taken aback by the crowds, we could bring it under control by evening,” a senior official told TOI.Meanwhile, a massive traffic jam was seen on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada national highway, where vehicles were stuck for nearly four hours before movement slowly resumed. According to Srinivasulu, deputy commissioner (traffic), LB Nagar, an accident near Chityal brought traffic on the highway to a grinding halt. “The accident caused a gridlock, and as vehicles began moving slowly, the backlog entered the city during peak hours, merging with Hyderabad’s regular traffic and worsening the snarl. The situation was brought under control, and the congestion was cleared within an hour,” he told TOI.
