Nagpurians wake up to overflowing Ambazari Lake and waterlogged streets

Nagpur: An overflowing Ambazari Lake has become a benchmark of sorts for heavy rainfall in the city. On Wednesday, Nagpurians woke up to flooded streets after a heavy overnight rainfall which caused waterlogging in several low-lying areas of the city and an overflowing Ambazari Lake.
Firemen rescued a senior citizen from drowning in a nullah in north Nagpur. Two trees were also uprooted due to the rain.
Sources said the lake usually overflows in August-September every year and last overflowed on September 16, 2019.
On Wednesday, the lake started overflowing early morning when the water crossed the overflow point of 31m.
Every monsoon, the Ambazari Lake overflow point turns into a picnic spot when the lake water spills over. An otherwise buzzing overflow point wore a relatively desolate look with many preferring to stay indoors this year due to the coronavirus scare.
Similarly, the Gorewada reservoir too was alarmingly filled close to the brim. The lake’s overflow height is 315.65m. According to sources in OCW, the water level has already crossed 313.69m, which is 1.96m below the overflow point. Due to Tuesday night’s heavy downpour around lake’s catchment area there is an increase of 74m water level in the lake.
The fire department rescued 67-year-old Murli Kotangale, a resident of Siddarth Nagar who fell in an open nullah near Powergrid Colony in North Nagpur. Kotangale fell down while he was returning home on Tuesday night. He lost balance and fell down. On hearing his screams, residents informed corporator Manoj Sangole who along with fire department officials from nearby Sugat Nagar station reached the spot and rescued the senior citizen.
Along with firemen from nine fire stations, emergency teams from 10 zonal officials were on their toes attending calls of water gushing into homes in several low lying areas. Waterlogging was reported in Prasad Nagar, Jaitala, Samta Nagar and many other areas in north, east, west and south Nagpur.
Even underbridges including Mankapur, Narendra Nagar, Mahedibagh and Kamptee road were flooded with knee deep water disrupting smooth movement of vehicular traffic.
Trees were uprooted in Babadeep Singh Nagar, near busy Krida Chowk in Hanuman Nagar and another in front of Hotel Centre Point on Central Bazaar road.