When the heat is as intense as it has been in the city for the past few weeks, rains are always a blessing. But all was not well for the city’s commuters yesterday, what with water-logging and the never-ending traffic causing many a delay and cancellation of appointments.
Entrepreneur Srimani M. was one such casualty of the city’s unpreparedness for the rains. After over an hour’s wait at a traffic signal on her way to a wedding, Srimani had to head back home instead. “It took me 40 minutes to reach the check post near GVK, after which I spent another 40 minutes at the traffic signal, waiting for the cars to move. I eventually realised I wouldn’t have been able to reach the wedding on time, so I decided to take a U-turn instead and head back home.”
Killjoys everywhere
With the rains playing spoilt sport and traffic signals causing mayhem, commuters across the city abandoned the roads for the metro instead. Joy Mukherjee, an MNC professional, was one among them. “To avoid the chaos on the streets we had decided to take the metro instead. But it was utter chaos, both on road and at the metro station. The platform was swarming with people and all the coaches were packed. Even the ticket counter was quite the scene with neverending queues,” Joy recalled. With packed roads and local transportation not being of much help, even app-cabs like Ola and Uber were on a surge-price high. Auto drivers were making a killing too, charging whatever their hearts desired. The commuters had no choice but to comply.
“The government should’ve been more proactive to deal with monsoon with enough public transportation in place. My fear is that the season has just started,” Joy added worriedly.
