Hyderabad: With the Million March, traffic woes trailed regular commuters. Though the police had officially announced the closure of Tank Bund Road, many other city roads were also barricaded, slowing down the traffic considerably.
Motorists who regularly commute through the busy Tank Bund stretch had to take alternate routes. The traffic moved at a snail's pace on the Karbala Maidan to Telugu Talli flyover stretch throughout the day.
“Generally, it takes around 10 minutes to travel through the Tank Bund stretch. However, as the roads were closed, we were forced to take the Lower Tank Bund stretch, which being nar-row, was really congested and it took us nearly half an hour to cross the road,” said Saurabh Rana, an employee of a private company and a regular commuter of the Tank Bund Road.
The students who were returning after appearing for their intermediate examination, faced a lot of problems while heading back home in the afternoon. “We could not find any autorickshaws to hire and even when we did, they asked for a bomb just to take us through,” said a student.
The RTC buses were also running behind schedule due to the barricaded roads and diversions. However, a police official said, “Though orders were issued for the closure of Tank Bund Road, commuters witnessed barricades all over the city. But since it was a weekend, there was not much trouble.”
V.V. Srinivasa Rao, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, had notified the public a day before, that in view of Million March by TJAC in Hyderabad and in order to maintain security, traffic on the Upper Tank Bund Road would be clo-sed from 11 am to 5 pm on Saturday. “Therefore, the public are requested to start early, take alternate routes to reach the-ir destination,” the commissioner said.
