Marooned in misery: rain brings Hyderabad to its knees, grim forecast for 3 days

From waterlogged roads and stranded vehicles to rain water entering homes in several localities, Wednesday’s downpour wreaked havoc on the State capital

Unremitting downpour for the major part of Wednesday evening left the city gasping, with roads and streets under water and motorists bewildered and stranded on road for hours. The after-effects on Thursday were no less taxing, with several areas grappling with inundation.

The worst affected area was Kukatpally circle of GHMC, with Balanagar receiving the highest rainfall of over 10 cm, followed by Alwal at 9.6 cm. Drains overflowed everywhere, turning roads into streams.

For dozens of vehicles on the Suchitra-Kompally road of NH-44, the downpour and its aftermath were nothing short of a hellish experience on Wednesday night. It was bumper-to-bumper traffic on the road with little relief from the heavy downpour.

On the Begumpet-Paradise-Secunderabad stretch, traffic jam was witnessed for more than a kilometre, as overflowing flood water prevented free flow of traffic. The airport flyover was the only available road as the road adjacent to it leading to the airport disappeared under the flood water.

Waterlogging on the Bowenpally-Suchitra junction road near Old Bowenpally left vehicle users helpless. Those going from Suchitra Junction to Old Alwal main road via Loyola Academy College were stuck as rain water overflowed and inundated both sides of the road. Vehicles got stuck with nowhere to go till the early hours of Thursday.

Cab drivers in their hurry to drive on the wrong side of the road only compounded the agony of vehicle users in the area.

Same was the case on the HT Road to Old Alwal road, as the authorities closed the entire 5-km stretch immediately after the heavy rain. Attempts by some motorists to enter the lanes and bylanes only ended in further agony as they were greeted by dead ends.