Having received more than a third of this season’s cumulative and its first moderate rainfall on Monday, road infrastructure took a beating, exposing city’s ill-preparedness for monsoon
The 4.5 cm rainfall, moderate in quantity, eroded patches, burrowed potholes and left many of city’s roads covered in knee-deep water.
Caught unawares
Denizens, particularly those riding two-wheelers, were caught unawares on water-logged roads in the evening and night.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s control room received complaints, many from locations with history of water stagnation.
“For years, water has collected on both sides of the road here.
Can something not be done about a recognised problem?” K. Parthasarathy, a resident of Allagadda Bavi, wondered as he waited on the crowded road for rush-hour traffic to clear on Tuesday morning.
The area had received rain late Monday evening, leading to water logging. GHMC received a complaint Tuesday morning from the area and sent its people to clear the road.
Begumpet CM camp office, Raj Bhavan, Punjagutta Model House, Eenadu Office Khairatabad, MJ Market and Police Control Room Nampally are all locations known to collect water on the road from where complaints of water stagnation on roads were received by GHMC.
To its credit, GHMC responded on Monday to clear wate in some locations. However, in others, including Erragadda, Imlibun and Red Hills, the municipality acted only on Tuesday.
“Come monsoon, water stagnation is daily occurrence here. This is conveyed before monsoon during meetings with civic authorities but nothing changes after rains arrive,” said a police official working in Erragadda area, referring to stagnation near ESI Chest Hospital in Erragadda.
Pending works
In some other areas, pending civic works caused much hardship to commuters on Tuesday morning.
In Malkajigiri, Sainikpuri and Neredmet for instance where pipeline works are underway, dug roads made it nearly impossible to navigate them as potholes deepened due to erosion. Water stagnation further slowed commute
Hyderabad has received 13.2 cm rainfall this month, with more expected in coming days. Indian Meteorological Department has forecasted heavy rainfall across the state which does not auger well for commuting in Telangana’s ‘global city’.
