Hyderabad: National Highway-44 in Kamareddy was severely affected by heavy rains, and vehicles remained stranded for several hours and commuters highly inconvenienced.
The rain of the past two days resulted in damage at some places to the road, suspending traffic. A major bridge at Tekrial and one at Sarampalli also had breaches, and a portion of the highway was washed away at other places. This lowered vehicle traffic between Hyderabad and Adilabad to a crawl.
Kamareddy traffic jam on NH-44 caused by incessant rains
The traffic congestion for nearly 15 km extended from Sadashivnagar mandal till Bhikkanur toll gate, and traffic was bumper-to-bumper. The traffic was trapped for more than an hour as authorities found it difficult to keep up.
The District Superintendent of Police, Rajesh Chandra, personally oversaw traffic clearance operations late last Thursday. Even though there was police deployment, long rows of trucks, private and government buses contributed further to the woes of the passengers. Most of the travellers felt fatigued and delays reaching destinations.
Authorities said that the highway was affected severely since Wednesday when heavy rain destroyed bridges and other sections of the road, isolating them. Engineers since went for assessments of the damage in order to repair and restore connectivity. Until the repairs are finalized, authorities warned that traffic would keep experiencing blocks intermittently.
Passengers and locals have demanded that affected areas be repaired urgently for smooth and continuous journey. Nearly all of them instructed National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and district authorities to dispatch repair teams sooner because NH-44 is among the busiest national highways linking Hyderabad and North Telangana and the state of Maharashtra.
