Life remained paralysed across Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, the second day of the 48-hour shutdown called by Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) to demand a separate state of Telangana.
Public transport remained crippled in Hyderabad and nine other districts of the region as over 10,000 buses of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) continued to remain off the roads.
Shops, business establishments, hotels, petrol bunks and educational institutions were shut on the second consecutive day.
Commuters in Hyderabad, especially those arriving at railway stations had a harrowing time as APSRTC city services remained suspended while a few autorickshaws and cabs charged exorbitant fares.
The local train or Multi-Modal Transport System Services were also cancelled for the second day.
With APSRTC employees too joining the strike, not a single bus can come out of bus depots.
The shutdown forced APSRTC to suspend all services between Hyderabad and other cities like Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Kurnool and Tirupati. The corporation, which suffered a loss of Rs.9 crore on the first day, plans to resume services in the evening.
The coal production in Singareni Collieries Company Limited was affected for the second day as a majority of nearly 100,000 employees in the mines, spread over four Telangana districts, refused to work. The company is likely to suffer loss of another Rs.20 crore on the second day.
The usually busy roads in Nampallay, Basheerbagh, Khairatabad, Himayatnagar, Koti, Mehdipatnam, Secunderabad and other areas in the state capital here wore a deserted look.
The shutdown badly affected the work in government offices as a majority of about 300,000 employees in the region stayed away from work.
However, the functioning of IT companies in Hyderabad is normal as the companies made alternate arrangements for the employees to reach their work place. The cabs carrying the techies left early in the day, avoiding routes where trouble is feared.