Even detours are jammed: Secunderabad motorists crawl through narrow, battered bylanes

Chaos prevailed for the second day on Secunderabad’s roads as traffic diversions came into effect for the construction of the Paradise-Dairy Farm Road elevated corridor on NH-44. The spillover was evident across adjoining stretches, with traffic crawling through Sweekar Upakaar, Tivoli, Tadbund, JBS, Diamond Point and Picket.

By mid-morning on Friday, the interior lanes such as Club Road, YMCA Road, Sikh Road, Picket Road and the stretch between Tivoli Junction and JBS bus stand turned into choked corridors of honking, slow-moving vehicles and confused motorists trying to find their way.

“Every signal point feels like an eternity,” said M. Harshvardhan, an IT employee from Alwal. “The stretch from Vikrampuri to JBS, which I usually cross in 5 to 7 minutes, took me almost three times longer, and this was at 1 p.m., not even peak hour. Everyone seems to be funnelling into the same routes now,” he said.

Traffic police said the slowdown and congestion was the result of multiple overlapping factors. “These internal roads were never meant to take this kind of load,” said a senior official from the North Zone traffic wing. “You have narrow lanes barely wide enough for two cars, uneven and pothole-ridden surfaces, obstructions on both sides, and a traffic signal every few hundred metres. Add to that, a surge of private vehicles and heavy transport vehicles being diverted. The chaos is inevitable.”

For example, while travelling from Suchitra to Paradise alone, there are at least 4-5 signals and each has waiting times anywhere between 40-80 seconds. “By the time a motorist clears one, they are already waiting at the next,” the officer explained. “Four signals in a 2-3 kilometre stretch can easily mean over five minutes of just waiting time.”

Adding to the chaos is the ongoing wedding season. Banquet halls and function venues along these diversion routes are drawing daytime traffic, clogging lanes further as cars line up outside entrances.

For many commuters, the daily travel puzzle has become longer and more unpredictable. Detours now stretch anywhere between 500 metres to 1.5 kilometres, with average delays touching 30 minutes, even for short commutes.

Larger vehicles, including buses, trucks and goods carriers, have also been forced onto these narrow internal roads, worsening the congestion and slowing smaller vehicles behind them.

Police have urged motorists to familiarise themselves with alternate routes in advance and avoid coming all the way to the closure points before diverting, especially near Tivoli Junction, which has been under heavy strain since the changes came into effect.