HYDERABAD: After a two-day lull, intense rains and thundershows lashed Hyderabad again on Monday evening, bringing the city to a grinding halt. Right from the IT hub - cutting across Hi-Tec City, Gachibowli, Financial District - to Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Begumpet, Mehdipatnam and beyond, the city's busy stretches were chock-a-block with traffic amidst inundation and waterlogging in several areas. The 30-minute blinding rain stopped traffic and brought visibility down to a few yards.
Key roads that were flooded by the downpour which started around 5.30pm included Raj Bhavan Road, Khairatabad, Nampally, Somajiguda and Abids. A barrage of videos and photographs shared by motorists on social media showed water gushing onto the roads from overhead Metro pillars in Attapur, vehicles partly submerged on clogged stretches of Malakpet and two-wheeler riders precariously making their way through overflowing bylanes in Musarambagh. Dozens of complaints regarding congestion were also posted along with alerts for others leaving from work or stepping out for some reason.
The Cyberabad police, in fact, sent out a notice for all IT and other employees to be careful. "Many roads in the city are flooded due to heavy rain. All IT and other employees should exercise caution when travelling home in vehicles."
Residents rued how they spent hours stuck on the road. "It took nearly one hour for me to make way from Ikea to Panjagutta. The traffic management went for a toss instantly due to the high intensity rain," Prashant Kumar, a resident tweeted. Ramu Krishna, another netizen posted images of inundated streets in Abids and Koti while requesting official intervention.
The Disaster Response Force teams were deployed at multiple locations to tend to water logging and tree fall complaints. A total of 12 complaints were received by the Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EV&DM) wing out of which nine were pertaining to water stagnation, two pertaining to tree fall and one about a wall collapse incident in Ameerpet. The DRF team reached the Shakti Apartment where the lower wall of a balcony collapsed, though, no injuries were reported.
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