Rain inundates many areas, causes traffic jams

LAHORE: Heavy rain caused hours long traffic jams in various city localities on Friday while Met Office predicted more scattered rain during the next 24 hours.

Friday’s rain once again exposed all the tall claims made by civic bodies to clear the drain out rainwater within hours. The rain started in the morning and continued till noon in intervals and converted almost every main and small roads of the provincial metropolis into mini ponds. This caused massive traffic jams, which continued for hours.

Severe traffic jams were witnessed in many areas, including Jail Road, Ferozepur Road, Multan Road, Data Darbar, Egerton Road, Davis Road, Shahjamal, Shadman, Ichhra, Township, Green Town, Johar Town, Faisal Town, Model Town, Allama Iqbal Town, Wahdat Colony, Muslim Town, Garden Town, Kot Lakhpat, Shadbag, Bagh Munshi Ladha, Kahna, Wapda Town and Thokar Niaz Baig.

The rain also inundated the cattle markets which were established outside the provincial capital and a very low number of people visited there due to rain. Following this, a large number of cattle sellers moved to different localities of the city and occupied empty plots to sell their animals. Mustafa, a resident of Township, said the area was submerged in over one foot water and despite repeated calls to the city government, Wasa and other departments, no one came to pump out water from the roads. He said hours long traffic jams were reported at Allah Ho Chowk, Akbar Chowk and other crossings in the area and adjacent localities.

After every rain, accumulated rain water remains on roads for several days while no one bothers to clear green belts as well as public parks, which later become breeding grounds for dengue mosquitoes, said Mrs Mujahid, a resident of Faisal Town. She said a small public park outside her house was full with rainwater and no one came to pump out the water. Several localities around Multan Road were also badly effected with rainwater as the construction work on Orange Train project was going on there. Hassan, a resident of Chauburji Quarters said he called the city government and Wasa officials repeatedly but no one came to pump out water from the locality till the evening.

A number of cars were also seen stuck in accumulated rainwater on various roads. The greenbelts were also completely full of rainwater and people were unable to even cross the roads on foot.

Awais, a resident of Anarkali, said rainwater inundated the Kaporthala House area, and the residents could not go out of their homes as the trenches dug for Orange Line Train were also full of rainwater and people were unable to figure out where the road was and where was a deep trench.

Met officials said marked seasonal low lay over north Balochistan while monsoon currents were penetrating upper parts of the country. They said a westerly wave was affecting Kashmir and adjoining areas. They predicted that rain-thunderstorm was expected at scattered places in upper Punjab (Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Lahore divisions), Islamabad and Kashmir while rain-thunderstorm with gusty winds was also expected at isolated places in Multan, Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan divisions, FATA and Gilgit-Baltistan. They added that hot and humid weather was expected elsewhere in the country.

Rainfall was also reported in other cities, including Rawalpindi(Shamsabad, 86mm, Chaklala, 70mm), Islamabad (Bokra, 85mm, Golra, 50 mm, Zero Point, 39mm, Saidpur, 23mm), Sialkot (city, 78mm, A/P, 06mm), MB Din, 73 mm, Mangla, 35mm, Jhelum, 34mm, Murree, 27mm, Gujrat, 22mm, Chakwal, 16mm, Kasur, 15mm, Gujranwala, 13mm, Kamra, 12mm, Mianwali, 06 mm, Rawalakot, 38mm, Kotli, 35 mm, Muzffarabad, 11mm, Garhi Dupatta, 07mm, Balakot, 33mm, Kakul, 30mm, Dir, 28mm, Malamjabba, 10mm, Peshawar, 07mm, Cherat and Pattan, 06mm each, Saidu Sharif, 05mm, Lower Dir and Kalam, 01mm each, Hunza, 06mm, Gupis and Gilgit, 01mm each.