Two hours! That was the time taken by motorists to cover the four-km stretch between Ernakulam South railway station and Vyttila on Tuesday evening after a heavy downpour turned the potholed roads in the city unmotorable.
The narrow Chittoor road remained waterlooged till late in the night, causing inconvenience to pedestrians and two-wheeler riders. The situation was especially bad at the KSRTC bus station, which resembled a pool of grime and litter.
With the transformer tower at Valanjambalam becoming unstable and precariously leaning over the road, fire and rescue personnel were called in. Vehicular traffic was only allowed in spurts in order to make way for pedestrians to use the safer part of the road.
While the roads narrowed beyond guess by the ongoing Kochi Metro work, remained inundated, uprooted trees added to the travellers’ woes.
Traffic hit
Traffic was thrown out of gear in most parts of the city and uprooted trees brought traffic to a complete halt on the M.G. Road, Palarivattom, the Ponnurunni road from Kadavanthara and at Irumpanam. “Waterlogging made it tough for pedestrians to distinguish between road and craters. On many stretches, we allowed them to pass before letting traffic move. The situation was pretty bad at Palarivattom and Edappally junction,” Hari Sankar, deputy commissioner of police (law and order and traffic), said.
Police and Fire Force personnel had a tough time controlling the traffic along the M. G. Road and main city stretches.
Fire tenders from Gandhinagar, Club Road and Mattancherry were pressed in to service to remove fallen trees and for related emergencies. Firemen said they also received reports from a few areas about transformers getting damaged in the lightning.
No proper system
The rains that lashed the city from around 5 p.m. also exposed, for the umpteenth time, the city’s pathetic drainage system, with several arterial roads getting submerged in filthy water. Although the rain did not last for more than an hour, many low-lying spots in the arterial roads were flooded. The Kochi Corporation’s failure in ensuring a proper drainage system was evident in many areas including Vyttila, Edappally, Palarivattom, M. G. Road and Kadavanthara. Pedestrians suffered the most as they had no other option but to wade through the rainwater mixed with sewage. Road users were also stranded in many parts of the city as traffic volume was on the higher side in view of the coastal hartal on Wednesday. “Especially in West Kochi, traffic was high, with supporters of hartal arriving and people eager to be home in the evening rush hour,” said K.S. Baby Vinod, assistant commissioner of police (traffic, west).
Power supply disrupted
Power supply was disrupted in several places following the heavy rains. Senior officials of the distributing wing at the central section of the Kerala State Electricity Board said that 11 kV lines were disrupted in major regions in the district.
Lightning also caused damage to transformers. Power supply got disrupted in Palarivattom and M.G. Road after trees fell on the transmission lines.
