Hyderabad rain woes – coming back to trouble

Hyderabad, the City of Pearls, the infrastructure development has transformed the old Hyderabad and is swiftly converting it into a sophisticated city.

Several initiatives are being taken up by the state government towards the promotion of IT sector. These include setting up Software Technology Park, Hardware Park, Knowledge Park, and the establishment of the financial district. This created a huge demand for the infrastructural development.

Hyderabad has been developed into a high-tech city which is gaining prominence with the Silicon Valley. The busy lifestyle makes the city stay awake 24x7, where nothing can bring it to a halt.

Expect the Monsoon rains!

It’s an unofficial holiday for the residents whenever it rains, as they cannot step out due to water stagnating for a long time, the rancid smell remains for two days, the traffic comes to a standstill due to flooded roads.

Making a nightmare for commuters hardly see if there is a manhole, a pit or an electric wire as the road is completely flooded, turning into a death trap. The government failed in solving this issue permanently.

With monsoon set in motion, Hyderabad might need more measures to avoid a repeat of 2016 and is now, gearing up to face the unsolved issues.

Last year, Hyderabad witnessed heavy rains which resulted in several residential localities turning into pools affecting the normal life.

The downpour continued heavily until the Hussain Sagar Lake reached its full reservoir level of 514.3 ft, with inflows crossing 4,000 cusecs. The authorities were forced to lift all sluice gates which eventually flooded several colonies.

Thousands of software employees faced turbulent times in reaching the offices in IT hub due to traffic jams and heavily damaged roads. The overflowing of storm water drains wreaked havoc in several areas with water entering into residential buildings.

Even though the GHMC has taken several steps to address these issues, by taking up special drives to remove encroachments on sewage and drains, demolishing dilapidated structures in the city, it still is yet to clear out the issues the public is facing.

Having learned lessons from the last monsoon season, GHMC has now, come up with its new plan -

121 monsoon teams have been deployed with pumps and tree cutters

300 sanitation laborers to work 24x7

19 central emergency teams are set up

Pothole filling and road restoration is being taken up on priority basis

Clearing stagnation points

25 Instant Repair Teams have been formed to carry out minor road repairs

"The government makes promises only at the time of elections but they will forget after getting elected. I’m eagerly waiting for next elections to ask our leaders why they have come to our area to ask votes. Waste of trusting the government" said an employee from Cognizant who resides in Defence Colony, Sainikpuri.

Another resident from the same colony, Vinnay Munna said, "Last week, there was heavy rainfall and water got stagnated besides our houses. My kids are very small and we are unable to go stores to purchase anything. We have only one gate and I request the government to make some better facilities to our area."

The government's tendency to bring in the repairs on the tarred roads after the monsoon might be the reason for the cracks to show up at the first rains.

A resident of Balaji Nagar berated saying, "In news, they have telecasted that KCR sanctioned full amount to Balaji Nagar, an area of Secunderabad which is under Gram Panchayat. Our village is same like before nothing has changed there is no water facility for us. In some of the areas, they have been given water line connections and drainages but nothing has happened in our area."

He continued, "In Rainy reason, we can’t even go outside because water is logging everywhere. We don’t want any double flat houses, we just need water connections and proper road facility."

However, the residents at the colony doubted the issues would be resolved while citing an example saying, "Last year at the time elections one leader brought pipelines to put in at Lakshmi Nagar colony but he took them back without informing to people. Some people said that they will not vote for him which might have been the reason he took them back. If leaders are bribing the people for votes, it is a waste of selecting them. People are requesting the government to develop the area."

However, this is just one example of many in Hyderabad.

Even though the authorities are making good use of technology to resolve the monsoon woes by using Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp, the city seems to be always on the repair mode when it comes to the sinkholes like NTR Marg which seem to appear every monsoon.

Even with the slightest rains, the roads in the city are immediately getting waterlogged. While the authorities are making arrangements and taking measures to reducing the impact of the rainfall, the city might still have to prepare the burden of the rains this time as well.

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