Seoul: Major traffic congestion was reported on several outbound routes from Seoul on Sunday as many South Koreans traveled to their hometowns on the second day of the Lunar New Year holiday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the nation will observe the major holiday, known as Seol, on Tuesday, with the holiday period beginning over the weekend and extending through Wednesday.

Around 5 million vehicles were anticipated to hit the roads nationwide on Sunday. This surge in traffic resulted in the heaviest southbound congestion, with 450,000 cars leaving the greater Seoul area and 380,000 heading toward it, as reported by the state-run Korea Expressway Corp.

Traffic was particularly severe on several southbound sections of the Gyeongbu Expressway, the country's most heavily traveled highway linking Seoul and Busan, where vehicles were often at a standstill or moving at a crawl. Additionally, many parts of the Jungbu Naeryuk Expressway, which runs north to south across the country, experienced significant traffic build-up.

As of 5 p.m., the anticipated travel time by car from Seoul to the southeastern port city of Busan, approximately 330 kilometers away, was 4 hours and 50 minutes. A trip to Daegu, located about 240 kilometers southeast of Seoul, was expected to take 3 hours and 50 minutes. In contrast, travel times heading toward Seoul were relatively shorter, taking 4 hours and 30 minutes from Busan to Seoul, and 3 hours and 30 minutes from Daegu to Seoul.

The agency estimated that traffic congestion might ease between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. in both directions.