Civic body not rain ready
Waterlogging of roads and lanes during the monsoons is bound to cause traffic jams in the city and the GHMC is not prepared to deal with rain-related emergencies. Emergency control rooms for receipt of complaints have not been set up yet nor has the desilting of storm water drains been completed.
In such a scenario, an adequate number of rain gauges that provide alerts on intensity of rainfall is a must, and these are not in place with the GHMC, the Water Board nor the Traffic Police. “The installation of rain gauges for the forecast of rain will be of great help in traffic management. The gauges would receive information on areas that are inundated and motorists could accordingly be guided. They could also be the basis for sending SMSes, using the social media and scrolling the status during TV news bulletins,” a senior traffic officer said.
The quantum of rainfall that the Hyderabad Meteorological department gives out is based on the rainfall recorded only at Begumpet airport. The GHMC has six rain gauges only and the decision on a proposal to set up one each in all the 150 wards is pending. GHMC engineer-in-chief Dhan Singh said they have set up six rain gauges, one each on the terrace of the GHMC office buildings at Tank Bund, Kapra, Qutbullapur, Charminar, Serilingampally and Kukatpally. “Emergency control rooms will also be set up in a day or two,” the chief engineer added.
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