Heavy traffic built up on the Hyderabad–Vijayawada National Highway (NH-65) as thousands of city residents left for their hometowns to celebrate the Dussehra festival. Long lines of vehicles formed towards Vijayawada, especially at the Pantangi Toll Plaza in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, Telangana.
The outbound rush is linked to the festival calendar. Vijayadashami falls on 20 October 2026, and schools in Telangana are closed from 10 to 22 October. Many families from Hyderabad are travelling to their native places in Andhra Pradesh, which has created queues stretching several kilometres.
Construction work is adding to the delays at Choutuppal. Flyover and underpass works there are part of a long-pending project to fix accident-prone black spots, costing hundreds of crores of rupees. The works push vehicles onto narrow service roads, and short stretches now take 20 to 40 minutes to cross.
Officials have taken steps to ease the flow. Police opened additional toll booths and diverted vehicles through alternative routes around the construction zone at Choutuppal. Even so, commuters report continued bottlenecks on the stretch from Dandumalkapur to Valigonda.
Similar festival-time jams occur on NH-65 every year, including during Sankranti and on weekends. On peak days, the Pantangi Toll Plaza handles more than 1.3 lakh vehicles. Authorities have earlier tried satellite-based toll collection on a trial basis at the plaza to clear vehicles faster.
Ministers had earlier directed that key flyovers on the corridor be completed before the festival season. Work at some locations remains incomplete, and the unfinished sections continue to slow traffic on the highway during the Dussehra rush.
