Heavy Sankranti rush on Vij-Hyd National Highway

Vijayawada: It is the festival time in Andhra Pradesh and people are bracing to celebrate the first mega festival of Telugu people, the Sankranti.

Lakhs of people of Andhra Pradesh living in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts in Telangana State are returning to their native places since Friday night to celebrate the festival with their families, relatives and friends for three days starting from January 13 to 15.

The Vijayawada-Hyderabad national highway was very busy on Saturday as lakhs of vehicles are coming crossing the toll gates. Luckily, there were no traffic jams and vehicles moved quickly at the toll plazas, thanks to the FasTag facilities available.

People will celebrate Bhogi, Sankranti and Kanuma with gaiety in the pleasant winter in the State. A large number of cars and other vehicles are seen from Jaggaiahpet to Ibrahimpatnam and Gollapudi on the outskirts of Vijayawada since Friday. By Saturday the rush increased manifold and is expected to continue on Sunday also.

The APSRTC, TGSRTC and private bus travel operators are operating special services. Besides, the South Central Railway is also running special trains to meet the rush of passengers.

Vijayawada west bypass constructed from Gollapudi to Chinna Avutupalli village in Gannavaram mandal is now very useful to the passengers going towards Godavari districts, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam.

Vijayawada police and National Highways Authority of India opened the west bypass for the commuters. A large number of vehicles moving towards Gannavaram, Eluru and North Andhra Pradesh are diverting towards bypass at Gollapudi. These vehicles need not enter Vijayawada city due to opening of west bypass for festival season.

The commuters can save more than one hour due to availability of west bypass since Friday. The National Highway Authority of India constructed the 30 km bypass from Gollapudi to China Avutupalli village in Gannavaram.

More than 90 per cent works of the bypass have been completed. But, highway was not thrown open to public till now due to 10 per cent pending works.

Keeping in view, heavy rush of vehicles in Sankranthi festival season, the Vijayawada police and NHAI decided to open the bypass and allow vehicles to pass towards Gannavaram, Eluru and North Coastal Andhra. Vijayawada Commissioner of Police SV Rajasekhara Babu inspected the west bypass and deployed police at Gollapudi to divert the vehicles towards the bypass and help commuters travelling towards Gannavaram and Eluru to pass comfortably.