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For many Hyderabadis, the daily commute is a lesson in endurance. Metro rides are patchy, buses overcrowded, and walking or cycling remains risky in a city built more for cars than people. As congestion slows the city to a crawl, urban experts say transport systems are failing the very people they’re meant to serve.
“The public transport in Hyderabad is neither cheap nor fast,” said K Nagarjuna, who works in a private firm. A one-way journey on a Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) bus from his home in Almasguda Kaman to Tarnaka would cost him Rs 160.
“It’s cheaper for me to travel by bike. Where is the incentive to switch to public transport? If I take the metro, I have to spend Rs 60 just to get an auto to the nearest station. The network doesn't cover enough areas and can’t be relied upon,” he added, highlighting the issue of last-mile connectivity that plagues the city’s transport system.
For regular bus users like A Revathi (52) irregular services are a major concern. “There aren’t enough buses on certain routes,” she said. Meanwhile, A Kavyam, a 23-year-old intern, prefers taking the bus to reduce her carbon footprint. “I would take the bus even if it wasn’t free for women. Since students don’t seem to be using them much, we even get seats to sit.”
The Telangana government has made bus travel free for women with local identity cards, under the Mahalakshmi scheme launched by the incumbent Congress government in December 2023. But not everyone is pleased. P Krishna Murthy, a fellow commuter, said buses have become overcrowded. “Some people seem to be taking to the roads without real need,” he claims.
Cyclists, too, have their share of grievances. MNA Feroze (38), a resident of Hyderabad, says many two-wheeler riders display little traffic sense. “They behave horribly and are insensitive on the roads,” he remarked.
Resident Santhana Selvan pointed out that the city has only around 3,000 buses compared to nearly 10,000 in Bengaluru, despite comparable populations.
“Cycling alone isn’t a solution. We need to promote active mobility – walking, cycling and public transport – in an integrated way. This includes well-maintained footpaths, bicycle parking at stations and public bike-sharing systems,” he said. Selvan was chosen by Amsterdam-based social enterprise Bycs as the Bicycle Mayor of Hyderabad in 2021.
The TSRTC has seen a steady decline in fleet size over the years. It operated 3,811 buses in 2014-15, but only 3,042 as of 2024-25. This is despite an increase in demand following the introduction of the Mahalakshmi scheme in 2019, which pushed average bus occupancy to 104 per cent. By contrast, the occupancy rate was 69 per cent in 2014-15, falling to 50 per cent during the years impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic due to travel restrictions.
Union leaders claimed that the government slashed 1,000 buses following a strike by employees in 2019, which was staged to demand payment of pending dues.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy recently thanked Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel, HD Kumaraswamy, for sanctioning 2,000 electric buses to Hyderabad under the PM e-DRIVE scheme. He has sought an additional 800. However, it remains unclear how many will actually be allocated to the Hyderabad metropolitan region.
A 2014 study by the Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) reported that bus services catered to 42 per cent of the city's transport needs, MMTS rail to 1.5 per cent, autos to 8 per cent and private vehicles — including two- and four-wheelers — to 48.5 per cent.
B Jeevan Babu, managing director of UMTA, said an updated survey is currently underway and will be released within a month. “Private vehicle usage would have certainly risen. Bus ridership has likely increased since free travel for women was introduced.”
Prof KM Laxman Rao, a transport engineering expert at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) and coordinator for the Centre of Excellence and Disaster Management, pointed to policy and planning failures. “The Outer Ring Road, meant to decongest the city, is being used to fuel real estate development. We need critical monitoring of all ring and radial roads to reduce congestion, accidents and pollution.”
He advocated for ‘fractal cities’ – neighbourhoods where residents can access essential services like education, healthcare and shopping without commuting long distances. “This is practised in Tokyo, where higher travel costs discourage cross-city commutes,” he explained. He also advocated for the use of artificial intelligence and geographic information system-based technologies to monitor and manage traffic congestion.
According to him, employers should provide last-mile connectivity for staff, a model used in the Netherlands. Monitoring public spaces with traffic surveillance tools is essential for improving service levels and should not be considered an invasion of privacy, he added.
“The biggest challenge is managing the 48.5 per cent traffic from private vehicles. Slow-moving traffic leads to higher fuel costs, pollution and stress-related health issues. The economic cost of congestion is pegged at around Rs 5,000 crore,” he said. His own daily commute from Habsiguda to JNTU used to take 1 hour and 15 minutes instead of the normal 27 minutes.
Rao was also critical of the Hyderabad Metro rail’s land policies. “Allocating metro land for commercial use has worsened congestion. Such practices are rare elsewhere. This is contributing to road rage and traffic violations.”
He also describes the 2013 master plan for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), prepared by LEA Associates South Asia Pvt. Ltd, as outdated and unfit for the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) region. “It has only benefitted politicians, bureaucrats and realtors. The city’s problems have only worsened,” he said.
A common criticism of the Hyderabad Metro is that route alignments were influenced more by real estate considerations than commuter needs.
Efforts to free Hyderabad from chronic traffic congestion have suffered from misplaced priorities, said C Ramachandraiah, former faculty member at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad. He argued that political disdain for public transport has worsened the city's mobility crisis.
“Former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao neglected the multi-modal transport system (MMTS), which utilises existing railway infrastructure, and instead promoted the metro rail. Although the Union Ministry of Railways was interested in expanding MMTS by another 70 kilometres, those plans were shelved. Similarly, the state road transport corporation was overlooked. The government focused on flyovers, but not a single kilometre of footpath was constructed,” he said.
MMTS, he pointed out, is more cost-effective than the metro and could have eased congestion if extended to more areas with improved frequency. While the Hyderabad Metro was designed to derive 50 per cent of its income from commercial real estate, with 45 per cent from ticketing and 5 per cent from advertising, reality diverged from the plan.
“By the time the metro’s malls opened, they were competing with many others in the city. The project was projected to serve 2.4 million commuters daily but now handles just 500,000,” he added.
Ramachandraiah criticised the focus on real estate over transit coverage, arguing that metro rail, MMTS and buses should complement, not compete with, one another. “We also need to consider Bus Rapid Transit Systems (BRTS) like those in Indore and Ahmedabad. Buses should be prioritised over cars with dedicated lanes,” he said. Referring to Census 2011 data, he adds that many Hyderabadis walk as much as six kilometres to work, making a strong case for proper cycle tracks.
Are flyovers and ring roads a real solution to congestion in Hyderabad? Not entirely, said urban geographer Anant Maringanti, executive director of the Hyderabad Urban Lab. “Traffic congestion is shaped by multiple factors: the location of schools, hospitals, offices and shopping centres, as well as the availability of efficient public transport with last-mile connectivity. Building ring roads and flyovers in isolation could make things worse,” he warned.
City traffic police officials argue that a multi-pronged strategy is being adopted to address the issue. This includes road widening, promoting shared mobility and carpooling, optimising traffic signals, deploying more personnel and creating “free left” turns at junctions. Since 2019, Hyderabad has been using an Integrated Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) to reduce congestion through real-time signal optimisation, route prediction and congestion alerts.
Police also continue to run enforcement drives against dangerous behaviours such as riding without helmets, using mobile phones while driving, triple riding, wrong-side driving, over-speeding and signal-jumping. Campaigns on drink-driving and seatbelt usage are also ongoing.
Advocate Dr Lubna Sarwath, an environmental activist and Congress Party member, noted that while buses occupy more road space than cars, they transport many more people. “Electric vehicles are being promoted, but we must consider the environmental costs of battery production and disposal. Also, the source of electricity matters. Taxing car usage between 8 am and 8 pm could disincentivise unnecessary trips—provided we have a reliable public transport alternative,” she said.
AV Ranganath, Commissioner of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency, formerly known as the Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management department of the GHMC, drew comparisons with cities abroad. “Toronto covers 2,500 square kilometres — four times the GHMC area — but has only a quarter of the number of vehicles. Our average speed is just 18 kilometres per hour. We need to deploy intelligent traffic management system more robustly, impose caps on the number of cars per household and discourage private ownership through deterrent policies.”
According to city police, Hyderabad’s average vehicular speed stands at 23 km/h—higher than Kolkata (16.67 kilometres per hour), Delhi (17.37 kmph), Mumbai (18.07 kmph), Bengaluru (18.47 kmph) and Chennai (20 kmph). However, these figures require careful contextualisation based on time of day and road segments.
The city’s air pollution trends remain contested. Anchala Raghupathy, Dean of Academics at the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), said rising levels of PM2.5 have been linked to cardiovascular disease and respiratory issues. “Elderly patients and children under five are especially vulnerable to lower respiratory infections and airway obstructions,” he noted, citing IIPH studies.
Officials from the Telangana Pollution Control Board (TSPCB), however, claimed that levels of respirable suspended particulate matter have fallen over the past decade. They attribute this to the rise in electric vehicles, retirement of older vehicles and cleaner fuels. Improvements in tyre pressure, road quality and cleaner petrol and diesel (low in sulphur and lead) have also contributed, they say. The plantation drive under the ‘Haritha Haram’ programme is credited with increasing green cover.
“We hope the National Clean Air Programme and solar power expansion will further improve air quality,” said WG Prasanna Kumar, a senior social scientist at the TSPCB. “Compared to industrial emissions, vehicular pollution remains the city’s top concern. The metro’s presence on high-traffic routes like Uppal–Hitech City and LB Nagar-Miyapur has helped reduce exposure for vulnerable commuters.”
However, critics argue that perceived improvements may stem more from changes in monitoring locations and metrics than actual air quality gains.
Over the past decade, while the total number of road accidents in Hyderabad has also risen, the number of fatalities has decreased — although the number of injuries has increased. This could indicate better trauma care but also point to continuing safety concerns on the roads.
This article is part of our series on how India moves, which looks at the relationship between air quality and human mobility in cities and towns.