Hyderabad
The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) will ply as many as 6,500 special buses to meet the rush during the Sankranti holiday season. Special services will operate from January 9 to 19.
According to TGSRTC Executive Director (Operations) PV Munishekhar, the company is expecting a large influx of passengers, which will run into several lakhs every day. Capacity planning, he said, was done gradually. The primary emphasis will be on transporting passengers to their respective destinations.
Unlike Dasara, which largely sees passenger movement in Telangana, Sankranti is expected to witness significant outbound travel to destinations in Andhra Pradesh as the festival is celebrated there on a larger scale.
As many as 1,500 buses have been earmarked for online advance booking. Almost 70% of the seats are already booked, with the remaining expected to be filled within two days of Sankranti, Mr. Munishekhar said.
Most of the bookings were made to destinations like Visakhapatnam, Amalapuram, Ongole and Vijayawada. “January 10 is the second Saturday and travelers are expected to plan their journeys to make the most of the long weekend. January 9 and January 10 will be crucial as they are expected to see a lot of passenger movement,” he said.
Special teams
To ensure smooth operations, TGSRTC will deploy special teams to monitor passenger flow and bus movement at major boarding points including LB Nagar, Jubilee Bus Station, Uppal, Aramghar and Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS). Additional teams will be stationed at KPHB and MGBS to supervise evening passenger traffic.
Passenger traffic is expected to peak on January 13 as January 14 falls on Bhogi, he said.
Return traffic is likely to see an increase on January 18 and 19, for which buses have been pre-arranged. Sources said the city’s bus service may be temporarily affected as about 1,500 buses are expected to be diverted from the city’s fleet to meet the demand for destinations in Telangana, including Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam.
Published – 02 Jan 2026 20:27 IST
