Rain leaves half of Lahore 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.

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.