Overnight downpour throws normal life out of gear, pours misery in tricity

The overnight downpour threw normal life out of gear after Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula faced almost flood-like situation.

The incessant rain coupled with thunderstorms and lightning lashed the tricity region on Thursday night and it continued to pour heavily till the wee hours of Friday.

While most parts of the tricity deluged under knee-deep water with major roads and junctions flooded in the absence of a proper drainage system, several road stretches in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula faced massive damage and were closed for vehicular traffic.

Though the residents woke up to a sunny day, Thursday night’s downpour poured misery with massive traffic jams, bottlenecks and chaos remaining the order of the day. In Chandigarh, Madhya Marg grid, Tribune Chowk and Transport Chowk witnessed serpentine queues of vehicles, while several road stretches leading to Panchkula, the railway station and IT Park were closed for traffic after they faced major damage.

Reports of trees and poles falling on vehicles and public property causing damage and disruption in power and water supply were also received from different parts of the tricity.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday issued a yellow alert for heavy rain coupled with thunderstorm and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana till Tuesday. “Punjab can witness heavy to very heavy rain on Saturday,” it predicted, while issuing an orange alert for Punjab on Saturday.

During the past 24 hours, Panchkula recorded the season’s highest 112.5-mm downpour followed by 79-mm in Mohali and 35.8-mm in Chandigarh.

With the weather remaining dry on Friday, the day temperature was recorded at 31.6, 30.6 and 31.2 degrees Celsius while the mercury settled at 23.7, 24.3 and 23.8 degree Celsius on Thursday night in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula, respectively.

However, the relative humidity remained 93% during the day.

The IMD has predicted partially and generally cloudy skies with thunderstorms and rain for the next five days in the tricity region till September 3 during which the mercury is likely to remain between maximum 33 and minimum 23 degrees Celsius.