Major junctions witnessed traffic jams.
KOCHI: Heavy rain lashed the district on Saturday as southwest monsoon intensified after a short gap. Most of the areas in Ernakulam have been getting good rainfall from Fridaynight affecting normal life. Commuting along the flooded and dilapidated city roads has become a risky affair for motorists and pedestrians. The roads worst hit are Vyttila - Petta, Thammanam - Pullepady, parts of Tripunithura - Vaikkom and Kaloor - Kathrikadavu. The Tripunithura - Vyttila road which is being widened by the Kochi Metro authorities is unmotorable. It took over an hour to cover the 4.5-km stretch. Long queues of vehicles were seen at major junctions like Vyttila, Kadavanthra, Palarivattom, Kaloor and Edappally. Most of the private buses cancelled the trips.
"We were not able to keep the timeline," said a driver of a private bus operating in Chittoor - Panangad route. The regular problem areas were water-logged. Though the city corporation claims to have completed pre-monsoon cleaning, several arterial canals, including the biggest Thevara-Perandoor, are yet to be cleaned. This causes floods as most of the drains in the city open to the 10-km long TP canal. Ernakulam district has received near normal rain so far. From June 1 to August 2, the district received 1169.4 mm rainfall as against the normal 1401.2 mm. On Saturday, Piravom received the highest rainfall of 44.3 mm and Perumbavoor a low of 22 mm.
