Hyderabad: Heavy rains bring city to its knees

Hyderabad: Heavy rains lashed the city on Wednesday. Officials at the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) attribute the continuous rainfall to a fresh low pressure area in in the Bay of Bengal. Abdullapurmet mandal received 37 mm rainfall. Hayatnagar, 24.8mm, Saidabad 19.3 mm and Asifnagar 15mm. The average rainfall in GHMC areas was 2.3 mm. Severe water logging was reported in LB Nagar, Hayatnagar, Saidabad, I S Sadan and other areas. At many places, motorists were stranded due to traffic jams. In the evening, people returning from office were caught in traffic and many took refuge under the metro rail pillars. Traffic came to a standstill at Punjagutta, begumpet, Hitec City, Nixampet, Kukatpally, Picket, Kharkhana, Mettuguda and Dilshuknagar when reports last came in.

The disaster management teams were deployed to deal with water-logging. The teams cleared problem areas including Yadadri theatre junction, near Santosh Nagar police station, Malkajgiri, Marredpally and Nampally. Power supply was interrupted in some places due to branches from trees falling over the lines. Police personnel were seen regulating traffic at several places. In many places water was till knee level. Raghuveer Naik, a software professional, said, "Even a small shower is enough to bring the city to its knees."

The police personnel found it difficult to trace the manholes due to water-logging.