Heavy rain, waterlogging throw life out of gear in Ghaziabad

Residents from prime localities of Indirapuram, Vasundhara and Vaishali, among others, had to face hardships as rains lashed the city on Wednesday

Residents from prime localities of Indirapuram, Vasundhara and Vaishali, among others, had to face hardships as rains lashed the city on Wednesday. Commuters had a difficult time between 8am and 10am due to slow movement of traffic on major roads.

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“There was heavy waterlogging on several roads in Indirapuram. The worst affected stretch was from Mangal Bazaar Chowk to Rail Vihar that witnessed almost knee-deep waterlogging. The other areas like Niti Khand and Shakti Khand were also affected. In Shakti Khand 1, water even entered some houses,” said Mohan Sangwan, a resident of Shakti Khand in Indirapuram.

“Commuters suffered a lot while reaching their workplaces due to heavily waterlogged roads. Pockets of Ahimsa Khand 2, Vaibhav Khand and near Shipra Sun City were also waterlogged as these are low-lying areas,” said Alok Kumar, a resident of Arihant Harmony in Ahimsa Khand 2, Indirapuram.

Residents who travelled outside the city also faced major issues.

“I was travelling to Bulandshahr from Vaishali and got stuck at Lal Kuan intersection (GT Road) which was heavily waterlogged. Vehicles were hardly moving. It took more than 30 minutes of cross the intersection. In Vaishali, waterlogging was prevalent in sectors 1, 2, 3 and 4,” said BK Pandey, resident of Vaishali.

Govindpuram resident Pratibha Rai also complained of heavy waterlogging on main road leading to Harsaon police lines. “I was to go to a school for submission of forms for my daughter. Due to heavy waterlogging, my car got stuck in water and we had to return home,” she said.

The weather analysts, meanwhile, said that there are chances of light to moderate rains on Thursday.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, Ghaziabad recorded an average rainfall of 12mm over the past 24 hours (between 5.30pm Tuesday and 5.30pm Wednesday). The automatic weather monitoring station at CDO Ghaziabad did not get a record for morning rainfall.

According to IMD, Ghaziabad has so far recorded 178.2mm of rainfall since June 1 till date, which is 60% deficient, against expected 448.9mm.

Officials of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation said that they have deployed teams in areas like Kavi Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Vaishali, among others.

“The team continued their work throughout the day. We even roped in jetting machines to clear off water from roads. The volume of rainwater was high. But most of the waterlogged areas were got cleared by evening,” said Pramod Kumar, additional municipal commissioner.

The officials of the Ghaziabad development authority, which maintains Indirapuram locality, said that pumps were deployed to clear the waterlogged areas. “The intensity of rain was high that caused waterlogging in some areas. Our teams worked continuously to clear water from low-lying areas,” said AK Chaudhary, executive engineer of the authority.