The heavy rain that lashed the city on Tuesday brought vehicular traffic to a halt and left a large number of localities without power. Rain water also entered houses in the low-lying areas of Nagamaiah Kunta, Padma Colony and Bathkamma Kunta. The Hyderabad Meteoro-logical department recorded 32.7 mm of rainfall up to 8.30 pm on Tuesday and has forecast more rain on Wednesday.
Citizens complained that in spite of officially resorting to 3 to 4 hours of power cuts every day, power was cut at around 6.30 pm when it started to rain heavily. “The government first hikes power tariff then imposes daily power cuts of up to four hours. And a single spell of rain results in black-out of residential areas. The officials say that it is equipment failure. Is the equipment so poor that it cannot withstand even a little rain? or is it that officials are taking this opportunity to actually save power, leaving the citizens to suffer?” asked Mr Surender (name changed) from Tank Bund.
Central Discom officials admitted that over half a dozen feeders had tripped. Each feeder supplies power to over 70 transformers and each transformer has 150 households connected to it. However, supply was severed in at least 100 colonies in Greater Hyderabad and it was not restored in half a dozen colonies even by 9 pm.
Motorists, meanwhile, had a tough time as they were stuck for almost two hours in traffic jams due to water logging on main roads. In sedveral stretches streetlights went off adding to motorists’ pain.
Thanks to the rains and waterlogging, traffic came to a virtual standstill at Lakdikapul, Jubilee Hills main road, Begumpet, Masab Tank, Nampally, Koti, Banjara Hills Road No 1, 12, Jubilee Hills cross roads, KBR Park, Basheerbagh, Somajiguda, Punjagutta, Tilak Nagar, Golnaka, PCR, Ravindra Bharati, Ansar Manzil, Ameerpet and MG Road.
“I saw an ambulance stuck for over 45 minutes near Masab Tank area at around 6 pm. As the road was chock-a-block full with traffic, there was no way for the ambulance to move ahead,” said Ms Varsha T. Even though traffic started to clear in two hours, the movement remained slow till late into the night. “I left my office at Jubilee Hills Road No 36 at around 6 pm and reached Lakdikapul at around 8.30 pm. Apart from traffic halts, many people met with small accidents as they kept slipping into submerged potholes,” said commuter Mr Vishant M.