Uninterrupted heavy downpour that lasted close to three hours sank low-lying areas and left motorists stranded on roads, a majority of which were flooded, reducing traffic to a snail’s pace and throwing life out of gear in the city on Wednesday evening.
Heavy rain, which started around 4 p.m., lashed the city relentlessly till around 7 p.m. after which it lost intensity and was reduced to a drizzle. Amidst the mayhem, the Indian Meteorological department scaled up the ‘Orange’ alert for Ernakulam district to ‘Red’ along with Alappuzha and Kottayam districts. That the downpour coincided with high tide further worsened the state of affairs, hampering the draining out of rainwater.
Places notorious for annual flooding during the monsoon such as M.G. Road, Kalabhavan Road, Pulleppady Road, T.D Road, Ernakulam South, KSRTC bus stand, Karikkamuri, C.P. Ummar Road, Providence Road, Gopalaprabhu Road, Shanmugham Road, and Pulleppady went under water disrupting movement of motorists and pedestrians. In Edappally, the dug-up state of the road as part of the national highway widening made life nightmarish for two-wheeler riders who were left to rely on their good fortune alone to evade potholes.
Deepa Varma, councillor of the Edappally division, said that not just her division but the entire city was badly affected by the heavy rain. The road widening work by the National Highways Authority of India did pose difficulty to motorists, she admitted.
“Traffic through the area came to a halt as serpentine lines of vehicles stretched from Edappally up to Palarivattom. The road leading from Changampuzha Park to Ponekkara was also flooded. It was a nightmare even reaching up to my car parked by the roadside,” said Liyons Jos, who runs a training institute near Changampuzha Park and had a tough time driving his way back home at Ponekkara.
The waterlogged Thripunithura Gandhi Square on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT
Sudha Dileepkumar, councillor of Ernakulam Central, said traders along M.G. Road were badly hit as no pre-monsoon cleaning was carried out along the stretch this time either by the Public Works department or the Kochi Corporation. Since the renovation of Mullassery canal is yet to be complete, the KSRTC bus stand also got flooded as usual, she said.
Giridhar R. Pai had recently moved out for rent from his half-a-century-old ancestral house on T.D. Road after being fed up with its unfailing flooding during every monsoon for the last decade. It was no different this time either. “We are now renovating the house with the foundation alone five meters high to avoid potential flooding in the future,” he said.
P.A. Sageer, president, Broadway Shop Owners Association, said that while the road through the shopping nerve was indeed flooded, water did not creep into shops as it did along M.G. Road.
Infopark Kochi, the IT hub, also bore the brunt of rain fury with flooding along Infopark-Edachira Road badly affecting vehicles parked by its side. Parked two-wheelers near Infopark nearly went under water. Some of the scooters were seen in knee-deep water until the rain became less intense after 6 p.m. The arterial road from the district collectorate was hit with a traffic hold-up around 5.30 p.m.
Meanwhile, people in coastal Chellanam have expressed fear of possible tidal swells if the rain continued till Friday.
“In Aluva, Bank Junction was badly inundated for the second consecutive day. However, the water level in the Periyar was not alarming,” said Jawad Ibrahim, an Aluva-based techie.
