Rain shuts over 200 Lesco feeders

LAHORE:The city received moderate rain on Monday while Met office predicted more rains during the next 48 hours.

The rain, which started early morning, brought city life to a standstill while hundreds of feeders of Lesco went out of order due to rain. Rainwater remained on city roads for many hours and Wasa officials including its managing director were on their toes to drain out the stagnant rainwater.

All major roads, residential and commercial localities, playgrounds, stadium, graveyards, bus stands and public parks were filled with rainwater. Wasa officials said that rainwater was effectively drained out from all the main choking points even during the rain.

Over 200 feeders of Lesco were also closed down due to continuous rain, depriving more than 40 per cent of the city population of electricity. As there was no electricity in half of the city localities, residents faced serious problems in getting drinking water because they were unable to operate their motors while many tube-wells of Wasa were also shut.

Wasa Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz said till Monday evening most of the 22 sore points including Lakshmi Chowk, Haji Camp, Firdous Market, Kashmir Road, GPO, Sheranwala Gate, Aik Moriya Pull, Mozang, Qartaba Chowk, Lawrence Road and Ichra were cleared from rainwater.

Meanwhile, Met officials said that a westerly wave is affecting different parts of the country and likely to persist in upper parts till Wednesday. They predicted that rain with snowfall over hills is expected in Northeast Punjab, Islamabad, Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

Rainfall was also reported in several cities including Lasbella, Zhob, Kalat, Barkhan, Ormara, Quetta, Dalbandin, Khuzdar, Jhang, Sargodha, Kot Addu Bhakkar, Okara, TT Singh, Faisalabad, Hafizabad, Kalam, D I Khan, Jacobabad, Mohenjo-Daro, Padidan, Dadu and Larkana.

Monday's lowest minimum temperature was recorded at Skardu where mercury dropped down to -17°C while in Lahore it was 7.2°C and maximum was 19°C.