The thunderstorm which lashed Haridwar district since Wednesday night has thrown life out of gear in the city on Thursday. Electricity and water supply were disrupted at many places after trees fell on the electricity poles and the water pipelines. Water gushed into the houses in lodha Mandi and parts of Jwalapur and Subhash Nagar. Slush got into several houses in the slum area of Indira Basti on Hill Bypass Road. The roads being under water, the locals were found helping the commuters to wade through the waterlogged stretches. Besides, a retaining wall of Ganga Jyoti Mission located in Bilwakeshwar Colony collapsed. However, no one was injured as there was none near when the wall crumbled down.
Those who work in the Haridwar Industrial Area which lies parallel to the Bilwakeshwar hill range had a tough time reaching their workplaces with the rivulet Jhabri flowing in spate. As the traffic was diverted through industrial area the commuters faced trouble as they waded through waist- deep water near the Tata showroom. Those riding the two- wheelers were the worst affected as the engines stopped functioning after water got into them.
A worker at Padmavati Pharmaceuticals Gaurav Bajaj said, “It was a big challenge to reach office on time while crossing the rivulets and waterlogged roads. With all the drains overflowing, it was difficult to distinguish the road from the drain. It was risky too.”
Hoardings and bill boards having fallen on the main roads of Haridwar city, traffic remained disrupted for the whole day. A massive tree branch fell on the camp office of the district magistrate. A crane was brought to remove the branches of the tree. A tree damaged a car parked in Kharkhari area while a car and a bike were completely damaged when the rubble of a demolished wall came crashing down over them near Jwalapur railway chowki.
Venting anger over the state of things, Mohan lal of Bhimgoda area said, “The disaster management cell of the district is a total failure. The drains should be cleaned before the onset of monsoon, something which the Nagar Nigam officials hardly do.”
However, sensing the anger raging in the troubled people, the district disaster management officer Meera Kaintura , city magistrate Jaibharat Singh and SDM Pratush Singh surveyed the affected area of the city to assess the damage caused by the heavy downpour.