Hyderabad: Waterlogging becomes hallmark of ‘Global City’

Hyderabad: Nine centimetres of rain has thrown life in the global city out of gear. Heavy water logging almost knee-deep was seen on roads leading to traffic getting grid locked.

Citizens, who were stuck in traffic jams, had to spend over an hour covering the 1.5 km distance. The frustrated residents said all claims of the government about making Hyderabad as a global city have now been exposed. The drainage system continues to be what it was several decades back. The biggest problem is that despite claims of the SRDP projects, cable bridges and underpass roads, the traffic gets blocked all over the city. Major bottlenecks are seen at the end of the flyovers where the width is hardly two lanes. Even police officials agreed that as roads suddenly become narrow at some junctions traffic problems arise. Speed of the traffic gets slower due to incessant rain leading to traffic snarls for a longer period. Waterlogging is experienced at several places despite the best of efforts by NDRF teams, police and GHMC teams.

Residents in colonies complained that overflowing drains and missing manhole covers pose a threat to life. In Serilingampally, the underpass railway bridge was closed as the flood water reached over 4 feet. A car got stuck in the underpass. Similarly, Uppal and many areas in Secunderabad also witnessed heavy waterlogging.

People pointed out that Arvind Kumar, Special Chief Secretary, Municipal Administration, had recently tweeted that Hyderabad won’t see a repeat of the 2020 floods but just a moderate rainfall has brought back those flood woes.

Complaints have been pouring in that the GHMC officials and other municipal officials did not take up desilting of nalas in time. In places where it was done, the silt was left on the roadsides. The rainwater flushed it back into the drains.

In Srinagar colony, silt of a manhole last week was left in the middle of the road. All these got washed into the drain back.

Some of the badly-affected areas were Ganesh Nagar- West Marredpally, Jeedimetla, Kompally, Shaikpet, Nampally, Red Hills, Trimulgherry, Nampally, Khairatabad, Lingampally, Amberpet, Mallepally, Nanakramaguda and Serilingampally.

Sai Teja, a two-wheeler commuter in Serilingampally, said there were a couple of occasions when his vehicle skidded and he had to suffer injuries as roads got waterlogged. Another resident said for the past 17 years there was no change in situation as no leader ever bothered to resolve the problem.

In Uppal, Kukatpally and Tolichowki all internal roads were damaged.

The Hi-tec City and its surrounding areas and Old City witnessed huge traffic jams.

Due to water leakage from the roof at the first floor of the maternity ward in the Unani Hospital, Charminar, many patients admitted in the ward faced hardship, and later were shifted to another ward.