Heavy rain lashes Hyd, brings down mercury

Hyderabad: Hyderabad and its neighboring districts need to brace for a deluge as the Indian Meteorological Department predicts continuous rainfall over the next three days.

While Thursday’s showers provided relief from the sweltering heat, they also exposed city’s poor drainage system. Streets were flooded, bringing daily life to a standstill. Waterlogged roads, massive traffic jams, and power outages created chaos, leaving residents scrambling for cover.

Social media was flooded with images of stranded commuters, submerged vehicles, and overflowing drains. Several houses in low-lying areas were also inundated. Medchal witnessed the first thunderstorm, followed by widespread showers and strong winds across the city. Areas like Rajendranagar, Uppal, LB Nagar, Malakpet, Nampally, Begumpet, Mehdipatnam, Dilsukhnagar, Yakutpura, Talabkatta, Shalibanda, Bahadurpura, and Golconda saw severe waterlogging, with motorists struggling through water levels reaching up to four feet. Vehicles parked on roads were completely submerged.

Other areas, including Banjara Hills, Punjagutta, Jubilee Hills, Masab Tank, Trimulgherry, ECIL Cross Roads, Kapra, Tarnaka, Narayanguda, and Himayathnagar, also witnessed heavy rainfall. Traffic jams in Chaderghat, Malakpet, and Moosarambagh lasted for more than three hours. At Malakpet RuB, a bus broke down in stagnant rainwater, further worsening the congestion. Commuters were stranded for nearly four hours as traffic police struggled to clear the blockage. Meanwhile, the PVNR Expressway was heavily inundated, bringing traffic to a halt along the entire stretch.