Thousands leave for native places from Hyderabad for Sankranti festival

Hyderabad, Jan 10 (PTI) Thousands of people from Hyderabad have started leaving for their native places for the three-day Sankranti festivities next week.

The Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS), Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) and other major bus stations and also railway stations in Hyderabad witnessed a heavy rush of passengers since Friday evening.

The rush of passengers is expected to increase in the coming days.

The three-day harvest festival is celebrated as Bhogi (January 14), Makara Sankranti (January 15) and Kanuma (January 16).

Sankranti sees thousands of those who migrated to other places in search of livelihood, visiting their native places.

Many NRIs also visit their native places to celebrate the festival.

Telangana Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy told reporters on Saturday that instructions have been issued to allow vehicles at toll plazas on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway without toll fees being collected in the event of heavy rush of vehicles.

Lakhs of vehicles pass through the Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway during the Sankranti season.

Reddy, who inspected the road expansion works of Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway two days ago, said additional security personnel would be deployed to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

Ambulances and cranes are also being arranged. A chopper is also being readied to undertake rescue operation in the event of major accident or a sudden health emergency, he said.

The Secunderabad-headquartered South Central Railway (SCR) and the Telangana Road Transport Corporation (TGRTC) are operating special services to clear the rush of passengers.

The TGRTC has announced that it would operate 6,431 special buses during the festival.

The Corporation said ticket fares would be revised up to 1.5 times only for special buses.

The SCR said in a release that the expected average daily footfall during the festival period is approximately 2.20 lakh passengers at Secunderabad, 50,000 at Lingampalli and 35,000 at Charlpalli stations in the city.

In view of the anticipated surge in passenger footfall during the Sankranti festival, the SCR has taken up several measures, including 17 booking centres and 20 Automatic Ticket Vending Machines at the Secunderabad station as part of crowd management measures. PTI SJR SJR KH