A low-intensity rainfall through the day and VIP movement on Thursday morning in the central areas of the city like Somajiguda, Begumpet, Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills, sent travel times out of whack for many commuters in the city. The movement of vehicular traffic was affected as slush and bad roads forced drivers to move slowly.
The first indication of something wrong was when the Hyderabad traffic police put out a message at 9.25 a.m. saying, “Slow movement of traffic from Tivoli X Road towards Plaza X road and North Zone DCP Office towards YMCA flyover, SBH X Road, Plaza X Road.”
If this was the situation in the northern part of the city, the ripple was felt at Somajiguda where a commuter, Raghavender Rao, Tweeted: “@KTRTRS This is the situation in Hyderabad near CM camp office in peak traffic hours 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. making traffic wait for 45 minutes from Paradise to Panjagutta flyover. Thousands of people late to their offices for giving a free line to VVIP protocol.”
“Every day, I take between 35 and 38 minutes to reach Somajiguda from Sainikpuri around 10 a.m., but today it took me an hour,” said Archana, who runs a dance school. Commuters also felt a pinch as surge pricing kicked in for ride-hailing apps.
At some places, it was twice the regular amount. “For 10-km distance, it ranges between ₹110 and ₹150, but today it showed ₹268 and a little later, it surged to ₹320,” said Madhavi, who stays near Langer Houz and has her office on road no. 10 at Banjara Hills.
One of a short 6.3-km commuting distance between Patny Circle and CM’s Camp Office took 36 minutes at 6.45 p.m. A painfully slow speed of 10.5 km per hour. The white topping work at Minister Road added to the traffic mayhem as Rasoolpura and Ranigunj roads were turned into one way.
By afternoon, one commuter, Abbas Razvi, came up with the suggestion of using choppers to transport VIPs. “#Bumper to bumper #Traffic on Road No 2, #BanjaraHills #Hyderabad. Possible #VIP movement on a daily basis. Loss of productivity, waste of fuel and time. Why not use #Helicopters to ferry VIPs? May be cheaper. @KTRTRS @TelanganaCMO @CPHydCity,” Tweeted Mr. Razvi.
