HYDERABAD: Did the construction of a new footpath in front of IIIT and TCS cause the four feet high inundation on Gachibowli main road that held up traffic for over four hours?
Regular commuters and traffic volunteers are of the opinion that the footpath works may have tampered with the existing drain network, as it severely shrunk the drain size, and allowed for garbage to clog easily.
This led to a traffic meltdown on Friday, August 30 when 3.5 cm rainfall brought the road leading to Gachibowli stadium to its heels.
According to locals, the absorption from the drain was so slow that the short intense spell filled the roads and refused to drain out for close to four hours.
“The water was four feet high. We had to use a JCB to break open the median,” said Ramulu, SHO Gachibowli traffic police.
Despite breaking the median, the water on IIIT side refused to flow towards the TCS side due to the slope issues, he added.
There was also a delay in Hyderabad Road Development Corporation Limited (HRDCL) and GHMC officials coming and identifying the source of the blockage, which further aggravated the issue.
The main reason for the inundation is being attributed to the fact that a new footpath is being made by HRDCL.
“Earlier, there was no footpath on this stretch. There was a large drain with over five feet wide opening, which soaked up all the water flowing into the road depression. Now, the new footpath has a small opening which is barely five to six inches,” said Anumod Thomas, a techie from Microsoft who volunteers to manage traffic.
The situation is such that, for a commuter travelling from Financial District towards Lingampally, there are at least four water logging points, on three stretches of roads, managed by three different authorities, making coordination for citizens and traffic police alike, a herculean task.
Officials from HRDCL however, called it a one-off incident as a giant boulder was stuck in the drain inlet. “The drain’s placement and capacity are not the issue. The issue arose due to blockage which was cleared, so this problem will not arise again. We have also planned to have a breakage in the median and put pipelines to allow excess water to pass through freely,” added K Sardar Singh of HRDCL.