Heavy rain exposes Peshawar’s civic admin

PESHAWAR: The residents of Peshawar suffered indescribable hardships after the heavy rain hit the provincial metropolis on Monday evening that caused the severest traffic jams in most parts of the city and cantonment.

The downpour that started at about 4pm continued intermittently till 10:30pm, turning the city roads into the water ponds. The rain also obstructed the traffic, particularly along the under-construction corridor of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

The open and unfilled dugouts and material left at roadsides of the BRT corridor became huge nuisance for the motorists and pedestrians alike.The severest of the traffic jams was witnessed between the Saddar and Aman Chowk on Khyber Road where a broken down passenger bus had blocked the road for traffic.

The situation worsened at the time when torrential rain set in and the stops around the BRT piers and those at the roadsides right from Services Club became the marsh of mud and pond on rainwater.

It forced the women, children and men of all ages to face the fatigue of walking for about one and a half kilometres on foot.However, after one and a half hours, the broken down bus was removed from the middle of the road and the flow of traffic was restored partially near the CSD Store and Amn Chowk.

Similarly, roads and the drainages in other parts of the city presented the same picture where the roads became water ponds and traffic remained jammed for hours.

Khyber Road in front of the Supreme Court registry office and Judicial Complex was inundated by rainwater and so were the roads in front of Radio Pakistan building and Gul Bahar and Nauhtia and other localities.

Earlier, the Met regional office reported that the weather remained partly cloudy in most parts of the region.However rain-thunderstorm with gusty winds occurred at scattered places in Hazara, Malakand, Peshawar, Mardan, and Kohat divisions.

It recorded Rain recorded  5 millimeter (mm) rain in  Dir, 32mm in Malam jabba, 24 mm each in Balakot and Kalam 23in  Kakul, 20in Saidu Sharif, 18 mm in Timergara, 17 mm in Pattan,  15 mm in Kohat, Risalpur, 7 mm each in Cherat and Mirkhani, 6 mm in Parachinar,  5 mm rain was recorded in Drosh. The Met regional office had initially recorded 4 mm rain Peshawar that till the filing of the story had crossed double digit.