Those going to office in the morning were worst affected because of heavy rainfall as they got stuck in the gridlocks
Hyderabad: Heavy rain in Hyderabad disrupted traffic movement at several places in Hyderabad and its surrounding areas. Even when rain had slowed, water logging slowed traffic at many places, including MJ Market, Lakdikapool, Mehdipatnam and Masab Tank.
People heading to offices in the morning were the worst affected, as the heavy rainfall caused gridlocks. As a result, many could not reach their workplaces or log in on time. Long queues of vehicles, mostly cars, stretching over two kilometres, were seen on the ever-busy Gachibowli flyover towards Biodiversity Junction.
Sensing that they would get stuck in traffic jams, a few IT employees opted for the work from home mode after obtaining prior permission from their department heads. To avoid the traffic chaos, many employees preferred to travel by metro rail to reach their offices.
The Ameerpet Metro Station, an interchange point, witnessed a heavy rush on Wednesday as office-goers chose to commute by metro instead of their own vehicles due to the incessant rain.
“As it was raining heavily, I preferred to travel by metro instead of my car,” said Raghuram, an IT employee from Saroornagar. In the evening, too, motorists faced similar traffic issues while returning home from their offices.
Stretches feeding the IT corridor moved slowly through the evening, including Shaikpet to Khajaguda, Gachibowli flyover to Biodiversity Junction, Shilpa flyover to Meenakshi and Nanakramguda Rotary to Gachibowli.
The service road near Himayatsagar remained shut due to prior damage and high flows in connected channels, and the Manchirevula village road was closed as Musi levels rose.
HYDRA commissioner A.V. Ranganath and GHMC commissioner R.V. Karnan reviewed Lakdikapool and nearby stretches on Wednesday evening. They instructed desilting of side drains, quick linkage of the new two foot pipelines between Mahaveer Hospital and Chintal Basti, and clearing of mud and leaf debris to reduce surface flooding. Traffic police were asked to assist the linkage work so that water does not stand on the carriageway.
Power supply was unstable in pockets where feeders tripped or poles were weakened by saturated soil. Utilities kept repair crews on standby and said pumping stations and street lighting are carrying extra load. Residents were advised to charge devices, keep torches ready and report outages promptly to control rooms.
Officials said the immediate focus is to keep low-lying bridges, causeways and underpasses restricted, to pre-place sandbags near full tanks, and to move families out early if water begins rising. Commuters were told to avoid non-essential travel at night, check route updates before starting, drive slower in poor visibility and give way to emergency vehicles.
