Vijayawada: Bus terminals, rly stations crowded as people head to hometowns

Vijayawada: A significant surge in people heading back to their hometowns to cast their votes on May 13 is being witnessed at bus terminals, railway stations and toll booths on Sunday.

Hyderabad is home to a large chunk of people from Andhra Pradesh. While the TSRTC had deployed 1,683 additional and 1,048 special services totalling 2,731 services to various places in Andhra Pradesh from Hyderabad, the APSRTC failed to rise to the occasion.

All bus stations in Hyderabad were overcrowded and people complained of shortage of buses. Even railway stations were packed to the brim as large number of people wanted to go to AP to exercise their franchise.

Similarly, during the same period, 1,494 scheduled bus services and election specials have been arranged from Bengaluru to various destinations in Andhra Pradesh. All the scheduled bus services from Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai were full with pre-reservation.

Interestingly, Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, Managing Director of APSRTC, in a press release on Sunday noted that the corporation has arranged 5,458 buses to transport election officials and related equipment across the State for the May 13 simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

According to Rao, this quantum is equivalent to 55 per cent of the corporation's scheduled bus services. Further, he said groups of 30 to 40 travellers set out for the same destination can reach out to APSRTC's election cell number: 9959111281 for availing special bus services.

The South Central Railway Zone said in order to cater to the rush it has temporarily augmented some trains with additional coaches.

Polling for the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana and 25 Parliamentary constituencies in Andhra Pradesh, along with its 175-member Assembly will take place on Monday.