HYDERABAD: Giving another warning of how changing rainfall patterns would bring shorter and more intense showers in future, Monday noon witnessed a similar heavy yet short spell of rain that brought traffic to a grinding halt in almost all parts of the city. It rained more than 7 cm in Gachibowli, Jubilee Hills and Kukatpally as the skies opened up, bringing the IT hub to its knees.
The downpour led to waterlogging and inundation of several roads, with some stretches of the IT corridor reporting waist-high water and cars getting stuck in the water. Several trees uprooted in Erragadda and Bharatnagar fell on cars, damaging them. However, no casualties were reported. With water levels surging on the stretch from Kukatpally to Ameerpet, traffic went haywire, putting commuters to inconvenience.
Meanwhile, other parts of the city like Himayatnagar and Musheerabad where rainfall was recorded at 4 cm, several two-wheeler bound commuters were stranded due to inundation.
Traffic cops urge techies to stay back at the office
In the face of heavy rains, both the civic authorities and the State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) have been failing to manage the infrastructure of Madhapur’s critical roads. As a result, the traffic police on Monday were forced to send out a cautionary notice to the Raheja Mindspace, one of Hyderabad’s largest IT parks, asking them to stop their employees from leaving the premises until the severe waterlogging in the surrounding areas reduced.
The IT park has over 100 IT companies, and employs over 1.5 lakh IT and ITES professionals. All of these employees were sent e-mails by the facility managers, urging them not to go out into the city, given the situation. The e-mail was sent at 4.30 in the evening, after heavy rains up to 7 cm lashed the area.
The e-mail further said that in case of emergency, the techies could use alternate routes proposed by the traffic police. “Please find below communication received from Traffic- Due to heavy downpour almost all the road around Madhapur have waterlogging and traffic may get stuck for long period. Please do not allow outgoing traffic as of now,” read the mail.
At around 5 pm, Madhapur witnessed a lethal mix of peak hour traffic and severe waterlogging. IT professionals and several other commuters took to Twitter to vent their anger with the situation. “Our city is unable to handle rain. Simple. And each year, this lesson hasn’t been learned by city planners whose goals are to keep building shit (sic),” tweeted Divya, a commuter.
High-intensity
showers on Mon
High-intensity rainfall was recorded in the city on Monday. The highest rainfall recorded was 73.5mm at Madhapur. Many parts of the city recorded 30-70mm rainfall in a span of 3-4 hours in the evening