Rain inundates Lahore roads, animal markets

LAHORE: The City received around 99mm rain here Tuesday inundating all major roads, greenbelts, open places and temporarily established markets for the sale of sacrificial animals.

The rain started early Tuesday and continued till noon. It damaged the temporarily established sale points of sacrificial animals due to which a large number of sellers thronged City roads with their animals. Mostly every greenbelt or open plot in various localities was flooded with sacrificial animals.

As per the data released by Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), the highest rain 99mm was recorded at Farrukhabad and lowest was recorded at 40.6mm on Jail Road. The data showed that 97mm rain was recorded at Pani Wala Talab and Nishtar Town each, 86.3mm rain at Lakshami Chowk, 86mm at Johar Town, 73mm at Samanabad, 68mm at Gulshan-e-Ravi, 80mm each at Chowk Nakhuda and Punjab University, 59mm at Tajpura, 58mm at Iqbal Town, 53mm at Upper Mall and Mughalpura each, 46.5mm at Wasa head office and 44mm at Airport.

The rain inundated all the major roads, underpasses, greenbelts and other places but majority of roads and underpasses were cleared in the stipulated time.

Wasa managing director said that the City was cleared of stagnant rainwater until sunset. He said that he along with his team was in the field and monitored the drainage process.

Wasa MD along with Lahore DC also visited Lakshami Chowk and talked to media. He said that Wasa had constructed around 10 more underground storage tanks to combat urban flooding. He said the underground rainwater storage tank on Lawrence Road was completed last year while presently underground water tanks at Sheranwala Gate, Alhamra and Gaddafi Stadium were under construction.

Wasa MD Syed Zahid Aziz also visited low-lying areas, inspected the drainage operation, checked the availability of de-watering pumps and other equipment. He also visited several disposal stations, which were kept active despite the power outage.

Meanwhile, Met officials said that strong monsoon currents were penetrating upper and central areas and likely to persist until Wednesday (today) while a westerly wave was also present over northern parts of the country.

They predicted that a thunderstorm was expected in Islamabad, Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir? Gilgit-Baltistan, North Balochistan while scattered heavy falls were also expected in Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Kashmir.

Rainfall was recorded in other cities, including Mandi Bahauddin, Islamabad (Saidpur, ZP, AP 44, Golra, Bokra), Noorpurthal, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Narowal, Jhelum, Joharabad, Murree, Rawalpindi (Chaklala, Shamsabad), Sargodha, Mangla, Faisalabad, Bhakkar, Chakwal, Attock, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Okara, Kotli, Garhi Dupatta, Rawalakot, Muzaffarabad, Malam Jabba, Kakul, Saidu Sharif, Parachinar, Dir, Peshawar, Cherat, Balakot, Kalam, Bannu, Takht Bhai, DI Khan, Pattan, Mirkhani, Drosh, Chitral, Zhob, Kohlu, Bagrote, Chillas, Gilgit, Astore, Bunji, Skardu and Gupis.

Tuesday’s maximum temperature was recorded at Dadu where mercury reached 47°C while in Lahore, it was 34.5°C and minimum was 24.3°C.

Meanwhile, PMLN Punjab spokesperson Azma Bukhari has accused the Punjab government for not making emergency arrangements before the monsoon rains. In a statement issued here Tuesday, Azma said neither the chief minister nor his ministers were seen visiting the roads during the rain but they always tried to ridicule Shehbaz Sharif for wearing longboats.

Lahore’s Lakshmi Chowk used to drown in every monsoon for past several years but now not a single drop of water accumulated there as a result of the projects started by Shehbaz Sharif, she maintained.