Frenzy at bus stations, toll plazas as voters return home for polling day in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

Surge in travel witnessed as voters return home for May 13 elections. Extra bus and rail services deployed from Hyderabad and Bengaluru to transport passengers. TSRTC running 2,000 additional services from Hyderabad. RTC has arranged 5,458 buses for election officials. Intercity bus bookings increased by 47% in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana before the elections. South Central Railway has added extra coaches to trains to cater to the rush.

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

Hyderabad is home to a large chunk of people from Andhra Pradesh and rural areas of Telangana.

From May 8 to 12, in addition to regular services, 1,683 additional and 1,048 special services have been deployed, totalling 2,731 services to various places in Andhra Pradesh from Hyderabad, the state-owned Road transport Corporation said in a press release.

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, Bangalore and Chennai were full with pre-reservation, it said. The corporation has also made arrangements to ferry the passengers back after the voting, the RTC said.

A Telangana State Road Transport Corporation official said they are running an additional 2,000 services from Hyderabad to facilitate voters to reach their destinations.

Meanwhile, Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, Managing Director of APSRTC in a press release today 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 percent 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.

Online bus ticketing platform redBus has forecast a 47 per cent increase in intercity bus bookings on the weekend in poll-bound Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, before the May 13 elections, compared to the previous weekend.

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.