Hyderabad: As thousands converged at the Uppal stadium in Uppal for football legend Lionel Messi’s GOAT tour, vehicular traffic across large parts of the city came to a crawl on Saturday evening. Following chaos at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, police in Hyderabad beefed up security, with many senior police officials working on the ground to ensure smooth proceeding of the event.
In the event, Messi’s visit to the Uppal stadium passed off peacefully.
“It took me 45 minutes to reach Secunderabad from Safilguda, as compared to a usual 20 minutes. The road that goes towards Rail Nilayam was jampacked,” a motorist navigating through the traffic said.
Rachakonda police commissioner G. Sudheer Babu monitored the arrangement from the control centre, issuing directions to field officers based on live drone surveillance. An advanced technological fusion centre set up at Uppal stadium integrated feeds from 375 surveillance cameras, including drones.
Major slowdowns were visible on the Secunderabad-Tarnaka-Habsiguda-Uppal stretch, where traffic remained bumper-to-bumper for long stretches, particularly near Habsiguda junction and the Inner Ring Road entry points leading towards Uppal. Commuters reported travel times stretching beyond 45 minutes on what is otherwise a 20-25 minute drive.
The Nagole-LB Nagar corridor, including NH-65 (Vijayawada Highway), also witnessed heavy congestion, especially near the LB Nagar junction, Masjid Road crossing and the Kamineni flyover stretch. Traffic movement slowed considerably as event-bound vehicles intersected with routine evening office traffic and bus movement.
Inside Uppal, roads surrounding the stadium, including Uppal crossroads and stretches near Abacus Mall and DSL Mall, were densely packed, with vehicles moving at a snail’s pace. Traffic congestion was also visible along the Inner Ring Road near Uppal Metro Station, where vehicles from multiple directions converged.
According to live updates and Google maps feed, the congestion extended beyond the areas near the stadium, choking parts of Vanasthalipuram, Karmanghat, Saroornagar and connecting routes towards Dilsukhnagar, hours before the event began.
In the western and central part of the city, Malakpet and Chaderghat circle were jampacked. The Chaderghat to Kachiguda railway station road remained choked. The stretch from Chaderghat circle to MGBS to Gowliguda to High Court remained packed, with heavy traffic congestion reported on the Salar Jung museum road too. Traffic was again affected at the Moosarambagh Crossoads. While coming towards Malakpet to go towards Uppal, the Pragatinagar road near Ramanthapur Cheruvu remained congested. Traffic continued to remain slow for a few kilometres from there.
While most of the parking space remained free from traffic, surrounding areas were choked. With the event drawing a large turnout, more than a usual number of traffic personnel were seen deployed at key junctions to regulate flow.
To ensure additional safety after the Kolkata tour fiasco, additional security personnel were deployed on the spot. “We do not want the same situation to repeat here,” constable Damodar told Deccan Chronicle.
Before additional force was called in, 2,500 police personnel from various wings were deployed, including 300 traffic personnel, 1,492 Law & Order staff, 18 platoons of TSSP/AR Force, two Octopus teams, Mounted police, Vajra vehicles, SB, CCS, SOT teams and four fire tenders with firefighting squads.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
