Heavy rain plays havoc in Lahore

LAHORE: The ongoing pre-monsoon rain spell has once again hit the city mercilessly as 50mm rain inundated most of the city areas resulting in worst traffic jams as well as serious inconvenience for the citizens here Friday.

The rain started on Thursday morning and continued till Friday night during which it showed its strength forcing most of the moving vehicles to go on a halt. Rainwater inundated most of the major city roads and entered houses situated in low-lying areas.

Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) had established emergency camps at various city points and its officials, including Wasa Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz remained on their toes to drain out the rainwater from the provincial capital but the drainage system choked at many points due to continuous rain.

The newly-constructed underground rainwater tunnel, which was still under construction was also opened to drain out the rainwater, said Wasa MD Zahid Aziz. He said this tunnel starts from Haji Camp and ends at Chauburji but at the moment it was completed till Lakshmi Chowk.

Met office, however, predicted that regular monsoon rains will start from July 07, 2018. However, on Friday, airport received 50mm rain, Gulberg 40mm, Lakshmi Chowk 33mm, Upper Mall 14mm, Chowk Nakhuda 12mm, Iqbal Town 13mm, Johar Town 21mm and etc. Wasa has already declared 22 city localities low-lying and emergency machinery, equipment and manpower was placed at emergency camps in these localities.

Wasa’s bad luck on Friday was that its newly-constructed disposal station at Lakshmi Chowk stopped working due to some technical reason. Sucker machines, dewatering sets and other equipment were called at the site and Wasa teams remained active in city at the site throughout the day. Following this technical mishap, about three feet stagnant rainwater accumulated at and around the site, which was drained out late at night.

Following the rain, more than 100 Lesco feeders tripped down resulting in hour-long power outages causing more inconvenience to the citizens. Other city localities where rainwater remained stagnant for some hours included Queens Road, Lawrence Road, Mall Road, Railway Station, Abbot Road, MCleod Road, Mayo Hospital, Anarkali, Zahoor Elahi Road, Ganga Ram, Samanabad Morr, Yateem Khana, Shah Jamal, Shadman, Ichhra, Model Town, Gaddafi Stadium, Main Market, Hussain Chowk, Kasuri Road, Gurumangat Road, Aik Moria Pull, Circular Road, Data Darbar, Ravi Road, Bilal Ganj, Misri Shah, Shadbagh, Garden Town, Faisal Town, Sandha, Rajgarh, Chauburji, Civil Secretariat, Urdu Bazaar, Link Road Shalimar, Township, Nabha Road, Excise Office, Customs House, GPO Chowk, Garhi Shahu, Vegetable Market Singhpura, GT Road, Chamra Mandi, Mughalpura, Sadar Bazaar, Dharampura, Green Town, Wahdat Colony, Garden Town, Chungi Amar Sadhu and etc.

Dr Mujtaba Paracha, Commissioner Lahore, also took notice of stagnant rainwater and visited Lakshmi Disposal Station to see the progress of work. Lahore DC also visited various city localities, including Lawrence Road, Lakshmi Chowk, The Mall and etc to supervise Wasa’s post-rain operations.