Hyderabad’s traffic is going nowhere — literally. With over 90 lakh vehicles jostling for road space, bumper-to-bumper traffic has turned daily commutes into a test of patience, with motorists losing at least 30 minutes a day (on an average) to congestion.While the Telangana Socio-Economic Outlook puts the city’s average vehicle speed at 23.4 kmph in 2025, up from 20.1 kmph in 2024, the Netherlands-based TomTom’s Traffic Index records it at just 18.4 kmph. During evening peak hours, the average speed drops further to 15.2 kmph, meaning commuters take about four minutes to cover every km.In comparison, Mumbai’s average speed stands at 20.8 kmph, with Delhi and Bengaluru at 25 kmph and 16.6 kmph respectively.The Times of India’snew campaign, Hyderabad Next,seeks to spotlight the city’s traffic congestion and explore sustainable, long-term mobility solutions througha Mobility Ideathon organised in collaboration withthe International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H). The best ideas will be recognised at a special conclave to be headlined bychief minister A Revanth Reddy.Five days a year lost to trafficFor Hyderabadis, the cost of congestion is measured not merely in km, but in hours lost from their lives. According to the TomTom Traffic Index 2025, Hyderabad commuters lose around 123 hours annually — or more than five full days — in traffic congestion.The index also puts the annual time spent manoeuvring traffic at 40 minutes for a 10-km journey. Ideally, metro cities in India should maintain an average traffic speed of 25-30 kmph. At this pace, a 10-km journey should take approximately 20-25 minutes.“I recently joined a multinational company in the Financial District, and my daily commute has become frustrating,“ said Vaishnavi Dhulipala, an IT professional from Chaitanyapuri. “Although the metro journey from my home to Raidurg takes around 40 minutes to cover 25 km, I spend another 30-40 minutes navigating 6km traffic in the IT corridor after getting off at the metro station. The stretch towards Wipro Circle is particularly congested, with at least 15 minutes lost at the junction alone.”The situation has deteriorated on routes connecting the western suburbs with the IT corridor. A commuter travelling from Beeramguda to Gachibowli said a journey that took around 35 minutes until 2024 now takes nearly an hour.“At Gowlidoddi, a stretch of less than a kilometre can take 15 to 20 minutes to cross, with vehicles frequently getting jammed. For employees travelling to offices in IT hubs, even short distances have become unpredictable,” said Sai Kaushik, a private employee in Gachibowli.Vehicle growth biggest concernThe pressure on Hyderabad’s roads is compounded by a rapid vehicular growth. The city is adding nearly 2,000 vehicles every day — 1,600 two-wheelers and 400 four-wheelers. The pace is almost on par with Bengaluru, which records around 2,100 new vehicles daily.Result: The roads in the city utilise 35%-40% of their carrying capacity under normal traffic conditions, which further rises to 60%–65% during peak hours, as per the estimates of Regional Transport Authority.K Ilambarithi, commissioner, Telangana RTA, said: “Around 4.5 lakh two-wheelers and 1.5 lakh cars are being added annually, taking the total additions in these two categories to over 6 lakh vehicles a year. The growing number of vehicles is adding a heavy load to the roads. This trend is cluttering the road network, and accommodating this growth would require around 200 acres of parking space.”Need 6 acres of parking daily for new vehiclesExperts also say how more vehicles mean a higher demand for parking space. Prashanth Bachu, a city-based urban transport expert, said, “We recently analysed the vehicle count and found that nearly six acres of land would be required every day to park the approximately 2,000 vehicles being added in Hyderabad. Without a significant shift in mobility and parking policies, the city risks sliding towards gridlock over the next five years as vehicle ownership continues to rise and parking demand competes with other uses of scarce urban land.”However, the problem is not merely the number of vehicles, but the road space available to accommodate them. Traffic experts cite a benchmark of around 1,200 passenger car units (PCUs) per lane per hour, although actual road capacity varies with lane width, junction design, traffic composition and operating conditions. The high hourly counts at major junctions underline the growing mismatch between traffic demand and the capacity of the road network.Some of the busy stretchesPunjagutta-Paradise:The Panjagutta-Paradise corridor witnessed a staggering 3.65 lakh vehicle movements in a single 24-hour period. An assessment of traffic volume conducted on Nov 10 recorded 3.6 lakh vehicles travelling in both directions, averaging more than 15,200 vehicles every hour. Between 5pm and 8pm, the Panjagutta-Paradise stretch recorded 45,033 vehicles, an average of 15,011 vehicles an hour.Cyber TowersThe congestion is no longer confined to a handful of bottlenecks. Traffic counts by Cyberabad traffic police show that more than 10,000 vehicles pass the Cyber Towers stretch in Hi-Tech City every hour. Of these, around 6,550 are single-rider vehicles, while nearly 3,500 carry two riders. Jubilee Hills Road No. 45 and the Film Nagar junction face a similar surge, with around 9,500 vehicles crossing each hour.Gachibowli-Kondapur corridorThe Gachibowli-Kondapur stretch witnesses traffic volumes of around 10,000 to 11,000 vehicles per hour during peak hours, making it one of the heavily used stretches in the western IT corridor. The volume drops to approximately 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles per hour during non-peak hours. The traffic load is largely associated with daily commuter movement towards and from the IT hubs in Gachibowli, Financial District and surrounding commercial establishments, alongside residential traffic from Kondapur and neighbouring localities.
