Post-Sankranti return chokes NH-65; bumper-to-bumper traffic as Hyderabad-bound rush peaks

The National Highway 65, the busy Hyderabad–Vijayawada corridor, came under severe strain on Saturday evening as a massive post-Sankranti return to the city triggered long hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic across multiple stretches, forcing police to implement large-scale diversions to prevent a complete standstill.

Traffic police officials said the volume of vehicles surged sharply from around 4 p.m., with an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 vehicles crossing the Panthangi toll plaza on Saturday alone, with the flow expected to intensify through the night as families continue their journeys back to Hyderabad.

At Suryapet, police recorded an average of 40 vehicles passing every one-and-a-half minutes in the evening, with surveillance drones deployed along the highway for continue monitoring of the inflow.

The situation worsened near Kodad, where continuous queues of vehicles led police to restrict the highway to cars and passenger transport vehicles. Heavy vehicles, including trucks, lorries and goods carriers, were diverted off NH 65 towards Huzurnagar, Miryalaguda, Haliya, Chintapally, to ease pressure on the main carriageway.

By 8 p.m., around 600 heavy vehicles had already been diverted from the National Highway, as per the information shared by an official from the Kodad police.

Miryalaguda emerged as a major pressure point as traffic from multiple directions converged on the town. In addition to heavy vehicles diverted from NH 65, traffic from Guntur, Macherla and even Tirupati was rerouted through Miryalaguda, Haliya, Kondamallepally and Chintapally as part of the diversion plan announced by the Nalgonda district police. Officials said the flow also included container vehicles from Krishnapatnam and Visakhapatnam ports.

Over 500 officials from the Nalgonda police were deployed on ground to manage the traffic. Vehicles from Nalgonda towards Hyderabad were diverted through Marriguda bypass, Munugodu, Narayanapur and Choutuppal, while traffic from Macherla was diverted via Nagarjunasagar and Peddavura before joining Chintapally. In addition, vehicles were also diverted from Chityal via Bhongir towards Hyderabad.

To manage the inflow closer to the city, more than 150 traffic police personnel were deployed at Choutuppal, one of the key entry points into Hyderabad.