Road transport between the Telangana and Andhra regions of Andhra Pradesh resumed on Tuesday after protesters lifted their blockade between Vijayawada and Hyderabad following the authorities assuring electricity supply to farmers.
The movement of vehicles between Vijayawada and Hyderabad resumed as the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) called off its protest on the national highway in the afternoon.
The breakthrough came after the authorities assured that farmers would be provided six-hour power supply. The Nalgonda district unit of JAC had called for 24-hour-long road blockade to protest power outages and erratic supply.
Due to the ongoing strike in Singareni coal mines in Telangana, the government has imposed one-hour power cut for farmers. However, the farmers were complaining that they were not being supplied even six-hour electricity.
The farmers in the state are supplied electricity for seven hours daily free of cost.
Hundreds of vehicles were stranded at several places in Nalgonda district since morning as the farmers and others supporting the demand for separate Telangana state staged the blockade.
Earlier, police arrested over 100 JAC leaders and activists at Nakrekal in Nalgonda district as they squatted on National Highway-9 to block vehicles coming from Vijayawada in Krishna district.
As the protesters also blocked the road at the border point between Andhra and Telangana regions, authorities diverted some vehicles through Khammam district. However, hundreds of vehicles, including buses, trucks and cars were stranded at the border.
The JAC alleged that many of its leaders had been arrested since Monday night.
This was the second consecutive day of Telangana protesters blocking vehicles coming from the coastal Andhra region.
The violent protests led to 20 private buses being damaged in Nalgonda district.
Thousands of people from Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Eluru, Rajahmundry, Guntur and other towns in coastal Andhra travel through the highway to reach Hyderabad.
Andhra leaders say the protests are causing severe inconvenience to people visiting their homes for Dussehra festival. State-owned Road Transport Corporation (RTC) buses remained off the roads in Telangana for the 16th day Tuesday.
The few RTC buses plying from Andhra to Hyderabad were also cancelled. Most private operators have also suspended their services following Monday's incidents.