As many as 40,000 vehicles have passed through Panthangi toll plaza at Choutuppal, the highest on a single day in four years, as people from Andhra Pradesh headed back home for Pongal on Saturday.
While the usual traffic numbers ranges between 12,000 and 16,000 vehicles on an average day, the harvest festival combined with the long weekend created a new record, toll plaza officials said.
The National Highway-65 in Nalgonda and Suryapet districts has four toll gates -- Panthangi at Choutuppal in Nalgonda, Korlapahad while entering Suryapet, Chillakallu, and Keesara at the exit.
And most traffic is at Panthangi -- the first gate to Andhra Pradesh in Telangana, after which the drivers take a diversion to the State Highway to enter Macherla-Guntur or Miryalaguda-Chennai via Narketpally-Addanki way.
Home-going traffic within the State is also to Khammam and Bhadrachalam.
“We thought that there would not be much traffic early in the morning, but fog slowed us down,” said a driver going to Vijayawada with his family members. Several others stood still for long or moved at snail's pace switching pedals.
Officials said vehicular choking was also witnessed on Friday evening.
From morning till noon vehicles moved slowly, but there was no gridlock anywhere. Toll operators were seen with hand-held billing machines in Panthangi and Korlapahad, where they walked up to approaching motorists to ease and divert flow through additional lanes.
Vehicles were also in queue for about a kilometre at Gudur toll plaza on Hyderabad-Warangal highway and Madgulapally plaza at Miryalaguda. Police officials from Bhongir, Nalgonda and Suryapet took extra caution by posting personnel and emergency vehicles.
Toll plaza managers said Sankranti is the time when the rush is the highest. But a ‘year-on-year’ now is a surprising fact – the plazas recorded 40,000 vehicles in contrast to 22,000 vehicles last year. A full figure analysis of the vehicular flow would be made after the festival, officials said.
