Heavy rain floods city roads, creates traffic mayhem

Hyderabad flooded again

Skies poured down on the city for hours on Thursday, turning streets into streams, residential areas into lakes and roads into virtual mayhem.

What continued for the past three days as drizzle turned into heavy rain on Thursday, throwing the whole city off the gear. Initially, the downpour hit Northern and part of the Central city during early hours, recording a maximum of 9 cm rainfall at Miyapur.

Morning commuters experienced traumatic hours caught in traffic gridlocks everywhere, more so in Serilingampally, where heavy water logging closed the RUB for the vehicles. Slow traffic was reported from other areas such as Rasoolpura, Begumpet, Mehdipatnam, Khairatabad, Madhapur, Gachibowli and other stretches.

Post noon, the clouds spread to cover the entire city to pound it for the next three hours without a break. Heavy water logging and inundations were reported from across several areas, especially Krishna Nagar, Nizampet and Lingampally. Gusty winds resulted in several tree falls and collapse of electrical poles, which led to power outages everywhere.

Major thoroughfares were inundated near Legislative Assembly, Punjagutta, Ameerpet, Nampally, Jubilee Hills, Begumpet, Gajularamaram, Malakpet, Abids and other areas. The recently altered road in front of the newly built State Secretariat was an apparent failure in terms of planning, as evidenced by heavy water logging which was not there earlier.

Chaos prevailed on roads everywhere during evening peak too, with tedious traffic movement testing the patience of commuters. Traffic police worked overtime aiding the municipal staff in clearing the water, but with little result.

The Disaster Response wing of GHMC has received total 45 complaints, including two wall collapse incidents in which nobody was injured. The other complaints were tree falls (28), and water stagnation (15). The Directorate of Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management (EV&DM) has circulated its contacts for people to call when in distress (9000113667, 040-29555500, 040-29560528, 040-29560584 or 040-29560591). The wing may be reached through social media too.