Schools in Cyberabad may go online one-day-a-week to tackle traffic chaos during monsoon

Schools in Cyberabad may soon hold online classes once a week during the monsoon season, as police plan to approach educational institutions in an effort to ease school-related traffic congestion and facilitate civic works across the commissionerate.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner M. Ramesh said he will soon hold a meeting with school managements and request them to conduct online classes ideally during mid-week in July and August. If implemented, students would attend eight days of online classes in two months. “This will reduce the pressure on the roads and also allow Cyberabad municipal officials to plan and execute civic works,” he said.

The proposal comes as schools have reopened after the summer break and traffic congestion has once again returned to major school corridors. Morning and afternoon peak hours are witnessing heavy vehicle movement as parents, school buses and private transport converge on campuses that often lack adequate pick-up, drop-off and parking infrastructure.

“It would provide relief not only for children who have to travel during unpredictable rains but also reduce traffic on the roads,” shared a parent when informed about the proposal.

A recent survey with 526 large schools found that nearly two lakh vehicles assemble outside school campuses within a 15-minute window during peak hours. It also found that 64% of schools are on narrow roads, 56% lack dedicated drop-off space, 29% have inadequate drop-off capacity. Over 250 schools have been identified as congestion hotspots.

Jeedimetla emerged as the largest high-pressure school traffic cluster, with 116 schools and 73,041 students. Balanagar has 67 schools and 46,523 students, including 30 schools operating without organised transport services. Kukatpally is home to 40 schools and 37,728 students, of whom more than 32,000 depend on private vehicles and other modes of transport. KPHB has 38 schools and 26,946 students, with 14 schools lacking transport services. In Madhapur, more than 1.5 lakh student movements overlap daily with IT commuter traffic, making it one of the city’s most critical congestion zones.

For 26-year-old B. Lalithya, the summer break had brought a rare respite from traffic. Working an evening shift and travelling from Srinivasapuram Road in Ramanthapur to Begumpet, he believed he had largely escaped Hyderabad’s peak-hour congestion. That changed when schools reopened.

At around 3 p.m., his journey slows near Hyderabad Public School in Ramanthapur, where hundreds of vehicles queue up. Captain Veera Raja Reddy Marg presents another bottleneck. The two-kilometre stretch up to NGRI Metro station has nine schools besides colleges and coaching centres and often takes more than 10 to 15 minutes to navigate.

“I lose at least 10 to 15 minutes just crossing these stretches, even though it is not considered peak traffic time. After that, the journey remains slow because several school buses are on the roads all at once,” he said.

These congestion points fall within the Uppal division of Malkajgiri Traffic Zone-II, which has 66 schools. Together with the LB Nagar division, the zone accounts for 111 educational institutions generating substantial daily vehicle movement.

According to Malkajgiri Traffic Zone-II DCP V. Sreenivasulu, the Habsiguda-Nacharam corridor and Uppal witness the highest school-related traffic volumes in the zone. “To manage the situation, traffic personnel are deployed at Survey of India Junction, HPS Ramanthapur and Delhi Public School, Nacharam, from 7 a.m. onwards. We are also enforcing restrictions on heavy vehicles, including private buses, between 7.30 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. and again from 3.30 p.m. to 10.30 p.m.,” he said.

Traffic officials say the lack of dedicated holding areas for vehicles remains one of the biggest contributors to congestion. The growing reliance on private vehicles for school drop-offs and pick-ups has only intensified the pressure, forcing roads designed for regular traffic to absorb thousands of additional vehicle movements within a short period every day.