Potholes make a comeback
Residents rue the lack of basic engineering skills of the civic body
Despite spending `400 crore, the city roads have again exposed the shoddy works of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. Craters and potholes have surfaced once again which have kept shoppers and office goers in traffic snarls that run into hours. The 12.38 cm rainfall forced several shopkeepers in Madhapur, Kavuri Hills and Patrika Nagar to keep their shutters down after rainwater gushed into their shops, damaging the material.
Also, the roads in VVIPs areas including Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills were completely submerged in knee-level water. The condition was worse in Panjagutta, Ameerpet, Khairatabad, Basheerbagh, Hyderguda, Koti, Begum Bazaar, Abids, Nampally, Himayathnagar, SR Nagar, Madhapur, Gachibowli, Raidurg, Kukatpally and Lakdikapool. Surprisingly, apart from low-lying areas, uphill areas were also inundated due to heavy rains which continued till late Wednesday night. Even though the civic body officials cleared the water logging till Wednesday afternoon, the heavy rainfall during the evening hours led to everything going back to square one.
“It is sad to see Hyderabad roads, especially the prime location of the city — Jubilee Hills and Madhapur — clogged with rainwater but authorities have failed to take measures to pump the water out. Commuters are struggling to begin their day,” says Neelakant Rao, resident of Jubilee Hills. Craters and potholes were formed in every part of the city even on the newly-laid roads. “What a great opening. The civic body closed this road for 3 months to build a world-class road with a big crater at the entrance and along the road. King Koti, opposite Hyline Restaurant. Missing basic engineering skills!,” tweeted Manish Lahoti, resident of Gujarati Galli. He asked what the point of spending crores in road repairs was, when newly laid roads were damaged after moderate rainfall. Several buildings were submerged in rainwater and GHMC officials failed to rescue them.
“Our building is submerged with rain and drainage water whenever it rains for 30-40 minutes. Water came into our building last night and today morning also. We complained to the GHMC many times. But no solution was provided. The civic body only talked of development of Madhapur on paper but there was no respite to local residents from water logging. Many times, it becomes impossible to step out of the house in such conditions,” K. Prabhakar, resident of Vittalrao Nagar, Madhapur, said.
“We are yet to perform evening puja due to the heavy rain. The water flowing from upstream seeped into our Durga pandal,” B. Ramulu Yadav, an organiser of a puja pandal from Krishnanagar, said.
Mr Ramulu said that one rainy day caused severe inconvenience to the people residing in Srinagar Colony and Aurora Colony. “I wonder if civic authorities are concerned at all about dealing with such a serious problem. The low-lying areas are the worst affected. The civic authorities have no system to address this issue,” he said. Busy roads have turned into cesspools with overflowing manholes and storm water drains. There were traffic snarls at Begumpet, Secunderabad, Raj Bhavan Road,
Nacharam, Srinagar Colony, Bowenpally, Maredpally, Begum Bazaar, Chilkalguda, Boudhanagar, Masab Tank, Langerhouz, Nampally, Mozamjahi Market, Aramgarh bridge, Khairatabad, Saroor Nagar, Kukatpally, Banjara Hills and several others parts of the city.
“Our teams have cleared as many as 34 major water logging points and seven uprooted trees in several locations from Tuesday midnight. Our teams have sacrificed their holidays. They have been taking part in rescue operations and will continue until water logging is cleared,” said Vishwajit Kampati, director of enforcement, vigilance and disaster management.