Early morning 9 cm rain jolts denizens

Hyderabad jolted out of sleep on Thursday morning with heavy rain lashing the city, leaving several areas under sheets of water and uprooting trees at a few places.  It was just a pre-monsoon shower but had exposed the ‘preparedness’ of the civic authorities.

The four-hour rain threw the city into a chaos and people have to experience waterlogging, inundation and traffic snarls during morning office hours.Despite tall claims by the civic authorities about monsoon preparedness -- clearing of silt in drains, covering potholes and others -- the city experienced waterlogging at several places and what was more disturbing was that those places remained inundated till evening.

The worst hit were the roads where metro



rail works were underway.  The rain exposed the chinks in the existing storm water drains (SWD) laid decades ago. 

GHMC commissioner B Janardhan Reddy said the existing drains in the GHMC can withstand rains up to two centimetres but 9 cm of rain was recorded on Thursday morning. ‘‘Inspite of the down pour, emergency teams cleared majority of the 267 water stagnation points by afternoon itself,’’ he said. 

Hyderabad and other parts of the state received rains as part of the pre-monsoon rainfall forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) till June 11.  Maximum rainfall was recorded at Amberpet 9.4 cm followed by 9.2 cm in Uppal and 9 cm in Khairatabad.