Hour-long downpour brings Hyderabadd to its knees; more rains likely in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad was brought to its knees again on Friday evening after an hour-long downpour battered the city between 6pm and 7pm on Friday. During this period, Asifnagar in the city recorded around 120 mm rainfall. In the same hour, many other parts of Hyderabad city recorded a rainfall of over 100 mm. By 9pm on Friday, Asifnagar received 150 mm rainfall, making it the highest recorded rainfall this year in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits, as per the data by Telangana State Development Planning Society. While Banjara Hills recorded 127 mm rainfall, Gandipet got 125.8 mm, Khairatabad 123.3 mm, Toli Chowki 114.5 mm,  Mehdipatnam 109 mm, Nampally 106.5 mm, and Gudimalkapur and Charminar areas recorded 95.5 mm rainfall each.

Soon after the rains, pictures and videos emerged on social media that exposed the vulnerability of the city to such intense rains. In low-lying areas near Mehdipatnam and Nampally, the floodwater entered many houses. GHMC received 68 cases of waterlogging and 168 cases of overflowing drains by 8pm. Traffic came to a standstill on many routes as they got inundated in rainwater, up to knee-deep. Hyderabad traffic police and Disaster Response Force (DRF) shared pictures, from various parts of city, showing personnel clearing the waterlogged areas. 

Speaking to Express, Rohit Deshpande, a private employee, said: “It takes usually 30 minutes to travel from Saidabad to Narayanguda. However, it took more than two hours on Friday.” Areas in Attapur, near Pillar no 193, were also inundated. Cyberabad traffic police advised citizens to take a different route to avoid getting stuck along the Mehdipatnam-Gachibowli stretch due to waterlogging. Under the Hyderabad traffic police limits, areas near Model House, Begumpet, Khairatabad, Telephone Bhavan, Chaderghat, SR Nagar and Ranigunj were also inundated, causing traffic to slow down. 

IMD meteorologist B Raja Rao told Express that the rains were actually thunderstorms caused by cumulonimbus clouds and aided by presence of upper air cyclonic circulation and trough. Thundershowers and heavy rains will continue to occur at isolated places for the next four days, as per the IMD forecast.