Widespread rain disrupts life in Karnal, Faridabad

Tribune Reporters

Karnal, September 23

The widespread downpour created flood-like situation in most parts of Karnal City on Friday. There was waterlogging on major roads and lanes. Water also entered houses and shops, putting a question mark on the preparedness of the Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC) to tackle waterlogging.

It began raining since Tuesday, but it has been raining continuously since Thursday morning. This has resulted in waterlogging at various places and overflowing of drains. The movement of people have been obstructed and several vehicles have got stuck on roads due to technical snags.

As per an expert, the district has witnessed around 200 mm rainfall in the past four days. Be it Sectors 13, 14, 6, 7, 8, 9, railway road, old city, or other parts, almost all were waterlogged. The Mughal Canal, the main drain passing through the city, was also flowing full to its capacity.

Ramesh Kumar, a shopkeeper on the Railway Road, said the rain had exposed the claims of the KMC as the city was witnessing a flood-like situation. There was a need of regular monitoring of disposal points.

KMC Commissioner Ajay Tomar and the team of the engineering wing took stock of the situation.

“I visited almost all areas of the city. Due to heavy rain in the past 24 hours, disposal points are chocked.These are being cleared by the employees. The Mughal Canal was also flowing full to its capacity at 9ft, but later in the evening, it came down to 3ft,” said Tomar, Commissioner, KMC.

In Faridabad, with around 168 mm of rainfall in the past 33 hours, a large number of residential colonies and areas have been waterlogged resulting in disruption of the traffic movement. Power outages between 12 and 36 hours have been reported from some parts of the city.

The precipitation received in the past 32 hours is the highest in the past 10 years, said sources in the district administration. The rain has resulted in acute waterlogging in the majority of low- lying areas of the city. Water is accumulated on dividing roads and the densely populated colonies located in all three zones of Old Faridabad, NIT and Ballabgarh in the city.

“Rainwater has entered several houses and shops in various colonies, besides disrupting traffic and power supply,” said an employee of the civic body. “Traffic cops are working hard to clear the traffic congestion,” said Sube Singh, a police official. A majority of the schools and educational institutions remained closed today. “The authorities concerned have deployed additional pumps and machinery to drain out the excess water, especially from the main roads and the national highway,” said DC Vikram, who visited several spots last night and this morning to oversee arrangements.

In Panipat/ Sonepat, heavy rain since the wee hours left Sonepat and Panipat city waterlogged. However, the day-long rain disrupted the daily routine of residents. The temperature dipped in the two cities. Traffic jams were witnessed in several parts of the cities. Sonepat town recorded the highest downpour 96 mm followed by 71 mm rain in Gohana of the district today. Besides, Panipat and Samalkha town recorded 50mm rainfall in the district.

In Gurugram, intermittent rains for the second consecutive day on Friday resulted in waterlogging on multiple stretches and areas in Gurugram. Two underpasses also got flooded and vehicle riders were inconvenienced. After heavy rain on Friday morning, the underpass of Rajiv Chowk got flooded. The teams of the NHAI and GMDA along with cops were seen making efforts to drain out the water. The DCP (Traffic), Virender Singh Sangwan, said the situation on roads across the city was better on Friday in comparison to Thursday.

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