Over four lakh people left the twin cities, heading for their native places and different destinations for the Sankranthi festival on Monday and buses of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation and trains ran choc-a -bloc.
In addition to the 3,500 scheduled services out of the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS), the corporation operated about 1,000 special buses. This meant that with an average of 50 passengers per bus, 50,000 more people than the usual daily average of 1.75 lakh, left to celebrate the festival, said C. Vinod Kumar, Regional Manager, Ranga Reddy.
“To decongest the MGBS, we were allowed to operate services from Jubilee Bus Station and other originating points all over the twin cities and the periphery, including Saifabad, Koti, Dilsukhnagar, Vanasthalipuram, LB Nagar, Uppal, Ameerpet, Kukatpally Housing Board and Lingampally. Apart from saving on time and fuel to have all the buses come in to MGBS, this sector-wise separation of bus routes also meant more comfort for passengers,” he pointed out.
From January 9 till Jan. 11 midnight, over 2,000 specials were operated from Hyderabad alone, he said, adding that peak rush of out-bound passengers will be witnessed on Tuesday, a day before the festival. However, he said that instead of the normal 4-day schedule, this year it will be six days as Sankranthi Kanuma is falling on January 15.
Additional help desks were set up at different locations and the public address systems in all the bus stations were put to their maximum use with officials constantly flashing updates of departures for the benefit of passengers.
“In all, 400 officials, including security staff, commercial and traffic staff are on duty to ensure trouble-free operations,” Mr. Vinod Kumar explained.
The South Central Railway had an entire battery of commercial, operations and security staff out in full strength at Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Kacheguda stations. At all the three main stations, people were seen using every trick in the book to try and secure a seat/berth.
