Rain pours misery, brings down mercury
Light to medium rain continued to pour misery and dipped the day and night temperatures considerably in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula on Thursday.
While 32.2-mm rain lashed Chandigarh, Mohali recorded 21.5-mm showers during the past 24 hours.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for heavy rain coupled with thunderstorm and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana during the next two days—Friday and Saturday—as well. The continuous rainfall threw the normal life out of gear with low-lying areas, major roads and junctions remaining inundated, leading to massive traffic jams and chaos across Chandigarh and Mohali.
The condition of roads further deteriorated with the potholes getting wider and deeper even as the Municipal Corporation authorities remained in deep slumber in both the towns. With no repair or re-laying in sight, most of the roads in Chandigarh and Mohali continued to give bumpy rides to the commuters, subjecting them to mishaps and damage to vehicles.
Several areas of the city witnessed waterlogging after a daylong spell of rain. Parking areas in many markets were also waterlogged, causing inconvenience to visitors. Patchwork on the roads done recently was washed away in the rain, posing threat of accidents to commuters. Low-lying pockets in southern parts of the city bore the brunt of downpour, as water remained stagnated for a long time. Waterlogging was also reported from Sector 17 and 43 bus stands.
The traffic movement remained slow at most of the city roundabouts. Surinder Singh, a trader in Sector 36, said waterlogging caused a lot of problems in market, exposing the lack of preparedness on the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation’s part. Crores were spent on cleaning of roads gullies, but the problem of waterlogging persisted.
He added that the roads in Sectors 53 and 56 are riddled with potholes, make it difficult for residents to travel. Waterlogging was also witnessed in low-lying areas, particularly underbridges in Sector 15 and Industrial Area. There were reports of waterlogging in fruit and vegetable market in Sector 26 as well. Residents of Dhanas said the condition of the internal roads in the village has become so bad that commuting has become dangerous.
Meanwhile, the showers made the weather pleasant with the day temperature sliding down by 5.9, 5.6 and 6.7 degrees Celsius to settle at 28.7, 27.8 and 26.8 degrees Celsius in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula, respectively.
The night temperature also dipped with Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula recording 25.5, 24.8 and 23.8 degrees Celsius, which was 0.9, 2.2 and 3.1 degrees below previous night’s reading, respectively.
The IMD has predicted generally and partly cloudy sky with thunderstorm and rain in the tricity region during the next five days till August 18 with maximum and minimum temperature likely to remain within 31 and 25 degrees Celsius.
Chandigarh