Rain leaves half of City without power

LAHORE:MODERATE rain was reported in most of the provincial metropolis here on Sunday 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 the rain. Rainwater remained on city roads for many hours despite the fact all the hierarchy of civic bodies such as Wasa, LDA and district administration remained on their toes.

The rain inundated all major roads, residential and commercial localities, playgrounds, stadiums, graveyards, bus stands and public parks. Wasa officials said a record 48 mm rain was recorded at Lakshmi Chowk.

Over 200 to 300 feeders of Lesco were also closed down due to the 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.

Managing Director, Wasa, Syed Zahid Aziz, said till Sunday 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.

Several roads including Davis Road, Canal Bank Road (Outside Prime Minister’s House at Zaman Park), Montgomery Road, Abbot Road, The Mall and, etc. remained inundated in ankle-deep stagnant rainwater for hours causing serious inconvenience to road users, besides causing traffic blockage at major crossings across the city.

The rainwater also affected majority of graveyards including Miani Sahib, Mian Mir Sahib, Township, Samsani (Johar Town), Township, Faisal Town adjacent to Kotha Pind and the Pind Rajputan graveyards where many graves caved in.

Meanwhile, Met officials said monsoon currents are penetrating in upper and central parts of the country. Westerly wave is also affecting upper parts of the country. They predicted that rain/wind-thundershowers are expected in Kashmir, Islamabad, upper/central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, northeast Balochistan, coastal belt of Sindh and Balochistan. Heavy falls are also likely to occur at few places in Islamabad, Kashmir, upper Punjab and upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the period.

Rainfall was also recorded in several cities including Balakot 83 mm, Kakul 41 mm, Malamjabba 25 mm, Kalam and Saidu Sharif 06 mm, Dir (Lower 07 mm, upper 05 mm), Tahktbai 04 mm, Parachinar and Pattan 03 mm, Kotli 47 mm, Muzaffarabad (AP 23 mm, City 25 mm), Rawalakot 05 mm, Garhidupatta 04 mm, Karachi (Surjani 47 mm, Gulshan-e-Hadeed 36 mm, Masroor Base 35 mm, Faisal Base 37 mm, North Karachi 34 mm, Landhi 27 mm, Saddar 25 mm, MS old area Airport 24 mm, Jinnah Terminal and University Road 20 mm, Kemari 17 mm, Nazimabad 15 mm), Mithi 25 mm, Thatta 04 mm, Sukkur and Hyderabad 01 mm, Sialkot (AP 42 mm), Islamabad (AP 28 mm, Golra 24 mm, ZP 12 mm, Saidpur 09 mm, Bokra 06 mm), Murree 22 mm, Rawalpindi (Shamsabad 13 mm, Chaklala 04 mm), Chakwal 14 mm, Gujranwala 12 mm, Kasur and Attock 06 mm, Gujrat 03 mm, Bahawalnagar 02 mm, Gawadar 17 mm, Ormara, Nokkundi and Dalbandin 08 mm, Kalat 07 mm, Sibbi 06 mm, Quetta 04 mm, Jiwani 03 mm, Khuzdar 01 mm and Astore 01 mm.

Sunday’s highest maximum temperature was recorded at D.I.Khan where mercury reached 43°C while in Lahore it was 36.2°C and minimum was 27.3°C.