Modi’s meet becomes nightmare for motorists in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Sunday evening turned out to be quite a testing end to the weekend with those who ventured out facing severe inconvenience in view of the traffic restrictions imposed ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meeting at Parade Grounds.

To facilitate the gathering, the Traffic Police imposed restrictions between 2 pm and 10 pm, with restrictions being in place on several roads right from the HICC in Madhapur to Secunderabad Parade Grounds and surroundings with several VVIPs taking the route to reach the meeting venue. Except those going to the meeting, the general public were not allowed to use the route.

The traffic police also closed the route between Tivoli crossroads and Plaza crossroads for the public and advised motorists to avoid roads in a three kilometre radius of Parade Grounds.

The ever busy MG Road, RP Road and SD Road in Secunderabad were totally out of bounds for regular traffic from afternoon. Residents staying in colonies around the Parade Grounds were the worst affected with the police barricading their colony roads. Those staying at Prashanthnagar, Prakashnagar, Begumpet, Rasoolpura, Sindhi colony and other areas also faced problems.

“People literally parked their vehicles in a haphazard manner in colonies also. Traffic police authorities were of little help,” complained Yeshwanth, a resident of Rasoolpura.

Traffic slowdowns were witnessed near the Secunderabad railway station, Jubilee Bus Station, Tank Bund, Khairatabad, Greenlands and other alternative routes too.

Passengers bound for the Secunderabad Railway Station from Punjagutta, Ameerpet and other western areas of the city found it tough to reach the station. “Not only did we have to shell out more money, but it took around two hours for us to go from MS Maktha to Secunderabad railway station,” complained Gopal Rao, who had to catch a train to Visakhapatnam.

TSRTC buses were also diverted. “The travel distance increased and we were forced to sit in the bus for a longer time. Some buses were terminated at Punjagutta and Secunderabad as the alternate route was very long and there were traffic slowdowns at several places,” complained a passenger.

The traffic police said around 1,000 traffic and law & order policemen were deployed to streamline traffic. “There were issues in some places due to various reasons. Timely reinforcements of traffic policemen to the affected areas helped to a major extent,” a senior traffic police official said.