The torrential rain on Wednesday, which turned Hyderabad into a lake, claimed 7 lives and affected thousands of people, revived the trauma of August 2000 when the city had received a record 24 cms of rain in 24 hours ravaging it.
Complete chaos and disarray was visible as the administration tried its best to restore normalcy several hours after the rains.
Though Wednesday’s rainfall was not as high as 16 years ago, still around 7 cms of rains in less than 6 hours was enough to expose the Achilles’ heel of Hyderabad — its drainage system and water outlets or drains choked by illegal encroachments and blockades created by haphazard planning. Some areas like Amberpet and Malkajgiri and Sayeedabad even received 12 and 9 cms of rain fall each.
Unlike that past when the rains hit some areas, Wednesday’s rains covered the entire city and many of its surrounding areas badly affecting more than 10 million people, turning the roads into lakes and stranding thousands of commuters in trains and buses.
The battered roads and manholes added to the woes of the people and it was scary to walk on the inundated roads.
After many years that water level in Hussain Sagar lake crossed the full level of 513.4 feet forcing the authorities to open its vents. The people living along the Ashok Nagar drain through which the discharged water flowed were put on alert as there was a threat of inundation.
Though the warning by the Indian Meteorological Center had warned of more heavy rains in the evening creating panic among the people but fortunately it did not materialize bringing some respite.
However on Thursday afternoon the city received some more rains and the sky was enveloped in dark clouds. Though the spell of rain was short today it was re play of yesterday’s scenes as the commuters had to suffer long traffic jams on the busy city roads.
Hyderabad Meteorological Center said that the upper trough over coastal Andhra was weakening but isolated rains were likely to continue at many places in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over the next 24 hours.
Some places in north coastal Andhra were also likely to receive heavy rains, it said.
After the devastating rains of August 22-24, 2000, when the administration was forced to seek the help from Indian army and Air Force, the then Chandraabu Naidu government had come up a plan to decongest all the water outlets and drains by removing the illegal encroachments. But after 16 long years the sense of déjà vu was palpable as things seems to have gone from bad to worse.
There were questions about the planning behind the new infrastructure projects including Hyderabad Metro Rail as its pillars built on the bed of Hussain Sagar were blocking the flow of the water.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced an exgratia of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of 8 victims of house collapse due to rains in the city. The victims of include four minor children.
Bilquees Begum along with her two daughters Zaiba Fatima (2 years) and Maria Fatima (1) died when the roof of their house collapsed and under its impact the iron Almira fell on them. local people rushed to save them but could not do anything due to the fear of electric shock.
In the other incident four members of a family died when an old wall collapsed on a hut killing 40 year old Balaswamy, his wife Chinnamma, daughter Parvaty and son Shekar. The incident occurred in Pragati Nagar in Uppal area.
One person was electrocuted in Falaknuma area when he was standing in a bus shelter.
The traffic on Shamshabad International Airport road was jammed for nearly four hours as the tank at Yerrakunta breached and water flooded the roads.