First rain brings alive rivers on Hitec roads

Hyderabad: With the chaos that a short spell of flash rain created in the IT corridor on Friday, it is clear that the city does not seem to be ready to tackle the monsoon. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said that the city can only handle rain of 2 cm at a time.

“The lakes at Nallakunta and Thummidikunta were filled because of the hour-long rain in the region. Water from the lakes came on to the roads. The water did not drain properly because of heavy vehicular movement,” said GHMC commissioner M. Dana Kishore.

He said the drain capacity in Madhapur and Gachibowli and surrounding areas can handle rainfall of 2 cm, but the areas witnessed a rainfall of about 10.5 cm in an hour.

He stated that drains before  Hitec City and Radisson Hotel were being obstructed by cables illegally installed by operators. “We will take necessary action and remove them as soon as possible for the smooth passage of drains,” he said.

The areas which were inundated included Kuka-tpally, Shilparamam, Hi-tec City, Ikea, Gachibowli X Road, Radisson Hotel, Biodiversity Junction, Sudarshan Nagar, Konda-pur, Durgam Cheruvu.

Traffic officials added that there would be increased mobile traffic personnel put in place to regulate traffic in case of such situations. GHMC officials said that they would deploy teams in water logging locations and remove water using pumps to avoid such situations in the future.

The biggest complaint was regarding the traffic jam. Among those stuck was senior citizen N. Venkat Rao, who was stuck at Madhapur. “It was a nightmare. If we have to go through such a horrible situation for such short rain, how are we supposed to survive the next three months of the rainy season? Why were no precautions taken before by traffic police to control the situation,” Mr Rao asked.

It was also a time when most software employees were returning to their homes for the weekend. Everybody was trying to escape from the mad rush to catch trains and buses and this increased the chaos.

Ms Shruti Sayam, employee at a private company, said, “It took four hours to cover 3 km from Manikonda to Gachibowli. It was never like this before. Despite having the Cyberabad commissionerate in the vicinity, we could not see officials regulating the traffic. With the absence of traffic police, everybody was trying to get into the smallest space possible.”

A day after the rains, GHMC officials including Mr Kishore and Cybera-bad police chief V.C. Sajja-nar inspected the area to identify vulnerable spots and address the issues.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Cyberabad deputy commissioner of police S.M. Vijay Kumar said, “The traffic jam was created due to heavy waterlogging reported at around 28 locations. Many people were trying to move in opposite directions which increased the problem.”