Days after a few hours of showers inundated several arterial roads in Hyderabad's IT Corridor, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said that it was taking several steps to address the issue. Stating that it had identified 197 major inundation points in the city, the municipal body said that 37 of those were solved permanently while the remaining 160 points were categorised as A, B, C grades according to the severity of the situation.
"For A Category points, GHMC would install a motor pump on a permanent basis along with manpower and the water will be pumped out as and when water accumulates. At B category points, a motor would be installed at business establishments, residential areas etc as and when inundation occurs, the designated team will swing into action and pump out the water. Altogether, there are around 500 team comprising various departments like Monsoon Emergency Teams, Disaster Response Force (DRF) Team and Disaster Management Cell of the GHMC, which are pressed into service during Monsoon," a press note stated.
On Sunday, senior GHMC officials including Commissioner Dana Kishore and Zonal Commissioner Harichandana visited various spots that were prone to waterlogging along with Prof Laxman Rao from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU).
"Suggestions were made that the surplus rainwater can be diverted into open places by making percolation tanks near Shilparamam, Nector Gardens and Durgam Cheruvu. A review meeting was also held with the Engineering wing officials and Electricity Department on the issues of obstructions of the free flow of rainwater in the city. Dana Kishore instructed officials to cut and remove private cables, which were unattended, as they were obstructing the free flow of water," the GHMC said.
Dana Kishore also asked officials to enlarge the vents at footpaths where ever possible so that the water recedes quickly during rainfall.
As the city received its first monsoon rainfall on Friday evening, massive traffic chaos was witnessed in areas like Madhapur, Hitec city and Gachibowli, the IT hub of Hyderabad. With rain water getting stagnated on the road during peak hours on Friday, thousands of vehicles got stuck for hours. Many lamented that the traffic jam was so bad, it took more than three hours to ride three km in the IT corridor.