15 cm rain sinks western Hyderabad, brings to fore traffic woes

Residents of western Hyderabad woke to a thunderous storm causing flooding, traffic chaos, and power outages in the city.

A deafening spell of thunder, along with sharp flashes of lightning and heavy rain, jolted residents of western Hyderabad out of their sleep in the early hours of Thursday. From Gachibowli to Serilingampally and Lingampally, the skies rumbled for nearly an hour, and water swiftly filled the city’s low-lying roads.

The downpour, which began around 3 a.m., was quickly documented by bleary-eyed residents on social media. “Lightning strikes so bright, they woke me up,” one user wrote at 3:19 a.m. “Sounded like explosions and it’s non-stop,” another user said.

“The street under my apartment is literally looking like a river,” another used wrote, describing the scene in Nallagandla. Many users noted that the storm didn’t ease up until around 4.15 a.m., after which a light drizzle followed. In Serilingampally, the stretch from the Revenue Office to BHEL turned into a shallow stream, forcing two-wheeler riders to inch through calf-level water with their feet half-submerged. Commuters trying to reach Doyens Colony via the Road Under Bridge at Lingampally were stuck in a slow-moving mess due to water-logging, while the arterial Gachibowli roads bore the brunt of the early rain and post-rain traffic.

Aditya Sharma, an IT professional working in Gachibowli, said he woke up to a message from his cook cancelling her visit due to waterlogging. “In the morning, the rain was very heavy. By 7 or 8 a.m. it had slowed, but since my cook didn’t turn up, I had to head out hungry for my shift,” he said. Fortunately, he reported a relatively smooth commute via the Miyapur-Gachibowli route, which had dried up somewhat by noon, when he left for work.

The first day of school reopening also added to the traffic woes. Parents navigating flooded lanes and drivers taking shortcuts through narrow colonies turned many intersections into chaotic bottlenecks.

An official from the Cyberabad traffic police said that the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams had been deployed and were on standby round-the-clock, especially in low-lying areas known to flood quickly.

The morning after the storm saw a split experience for IT commuters- those who started late or worked from home managed to avoid the worst of it. While those travelling early in the morning experienced traffic snarls.