Flooded roads, obstacles make it a nightmarish Monday

Monday turned out to be quite a nightmare for motorists in the State capital as vehicles crawled at an agonisingly slow place on almost all major thoroughfares throughout the day thanks to a variety of reasons.

If the ill-thought-out move of the police bosses to remove huge uni-poles at Punjagutta and Rasoolpura junctions in the day threw the traffic into a near chaos, a sharp shower lasting for no more than 30 minutes in the evening brought the vehicles to a grinding halt. The age-old storm water drain system failed to discharge the running water leading to water logging at many areas.

Loose soil

As if this was not enough, several freshly laid roads caved in, while the dug up ones filled with loose soil hampered vehicle movement. The cup of woe for citizens quite literally overflowed on Monday.

The uni-pole removal decided by the ‘higher-ups’ brought the traffic on the Punjagutta stretch, the busiest thoroughfare, to a virtual halt, as the police had to station a huge crane on the road. Why the uni-pole had to be removed during the day and not night when there is no traffic did not yield any answer from policemen. “Such decisions show how officials are not bothered about people suffering,” was the common refrain from those stranded on the roads. The Punjagutta jam had a ripple effect on all major thoroughfares.

Roads cave in

Just as motorists suffered the uni-pole torture, sharp showers led to water logging at several places, the crucial one at Lakdi-ka-pul, which almost led to formation of a traffic gridlock. At several places, road surfaces caved in. The most serious one reported was at City College in old city. The freshly laid road caved in, rendering a good part of the carriage-way unmotorable. At other places, the loose soil used to fill up trenches dug up for pipeline work caved in at many places. It was a different story on the roads that were dug up by various utility companies and left unattended, like the one on Rasoolpura-Greenlands stretch.

Owing to these protracted delays, several families were anxious for their loved ones. “My grand-daughter left Hi Tec city at 5.45 p.m. and has not reached home even after three hours. She said her bus has been stuck at Punjagutta for more than an hour,” N. Ramanathan from Marredpally complained.

With civic authorities failing to respond to their requests, traffic police were forced to get into their boots at many waterlogged areas. “Irrespective of whether GHMC workers clear the water logging or not, we have to deal with the situation,” a policeman said.