Waterlogging near the Vanaz Metro car shed on Paud Phata-Chandni Chowk road led to huge traffic jams. Arul Horizon AN INTENSE SPELL of rain accompanied by thunder, lightning and gusty winds on Thursday evening threw life out of gear for Pune, with reports of traffic snarls and multiple incidents of trees falling.
Within a few hours, Shivajinagar had reported 24.4 mm of rainfall leading to water-logging on several roads, and Pashan reported 46 mm of rainfall, the highest in the city.
The strong spell of rain, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, was due to multiple weather phenomenon. A new Western Disturbance (moisture-laden winds from Mediterranean Sea), easterlies and incursions of moisture-laden winds from both Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, coupled with extremely high temperatures caused the present deluge of rain. What was expected to be a moderate to light spell, turned out to be an intense bout thanks to the thick cloud cover over Pune city.
Traffic was reported to cause major congestion on all main arterial roads including Ganesh Khind Road, Pune station area, Sinhagad Road, Karve Road, Satara Road, Solapur Road, Ahmednagar Road, Baner Road, Nashik Road, Airport Road, a patch of Pune-Mumbai highway in the city, many patches of the Katraj Dehu Road bypass of Pune-Bangalore Highway, and at places where Pune Metro work is underway, as per information given by traffic police officials.
“Sudden heavy rain, water logging, malfunctioning signals at a few places, overall slowing down of vehicles due to rain did lead to traffic congestion and snarls during peak traffic hours late evening when most people are headed home. We had deployed additional staff on the streets and key traffic bottlenecks and arterial roads, which enabled us to manually ease the chaos at many places,” said an officer from Pune traffic police.
Till 9 pm, the Pune fire brigade had received intimation about seven incidents of tree collapse in Kothrud, Erandwane, Aundh, Abhimanshree Society and Baner.
A bus was damaged at Kothrud depot after the structural part of a display board fell on it. A building was reportedly damaged near Kalmadi House where a column supporting a protruding platform collapsed. One rickshaw was damaged at Shastrinagar in Kothrud after a tree fell on it. There were no reports of casualties in these incidents, fire brigade officials said.
Power outages
Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) said that incidents of uprooting of trees and accumulation of water around underground supply lines at some places resulted in power outages in several areas of Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad on Thursday evening. Power supply in most areas was restored by 10.30 pm, officials said.
Power outages were reported from Rambag Colony, Vedvihar, Dhanori, Pashan, Charholi, Santnagar, Malwadi, Akurdi and Mahalunge.
A collapsed tree on a supply line in Rambag Colony led to power cuts in about 4,000 houses. The supply was restored by MSEDCL technicians after the fire brigade cleared the tree.