Owais Gul
Srinagar, Jul 23: An hour-long incessant rainfall in Srinagar submerged the major roads, lanes and bi-lanes of the City here, causing immense hardships to the pedestrians as well as the commuters on Saturday.
The roads, especially in commercial Hub Lal Chowk and other places of Srinagar got submerged today morning when the incessant rainfall lashed Kashmir parts, bringing respite from scorching heat.
The locals said that the few minutes of rainfall has punctured the claims of the government about the augmenting infrastructure related to the drainage system in Srinagar.
“The people faced tremendous hardships in the morning hours when almost all the roads, lanes and bi-lanes got submerged. The pedestrians had to walk through the muddy water, which is tantamount to risking their lives and also can affect the health condition of people as well,” Junaid Ahmad, a pedestrian at Kashmir Haat near Town Square, said.
They blamed the concerned authorities for such a mess, saying that the situation could have been prevented in case the better drainage system would have been in place.
However, the concerned Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) said that there is no machinery available across the globe that can prevent the inundation of roads during heavy rainfall similar to today morning.
Deputy Mayor, SMC, Parvez Ahmad Qadri said that it is for the first time in the recent past that the roads got submerged as the intensity of rain was too high and no machinery can prevent the roads from getting submerged during heavy rainfall. “The States having the best drainage system also witness submerging of roads whenever it rains incessantly like today in Kashmir,” he said.
Qadri further said that the infrastructure has been augmented in Srinagar. “Earlier it was taking six hours or even days to dewater the roads after rainfall, but the dewatering stations have been upgraded and the capacity of the dewatering stations has been increased and because of this the roads were cleared within minutes today,” he said.
However, he added that at some places the improper alignment of roads has been affecting the dewatering process, but the suckers have been pressed into the service to clear the roads.
Deputy Mayor further said that the new drainage plan is under consideration, which has not been implemented yet, saying that the new projects would connect multiple drainages and would reduce the time of dewatering the roads in the future.
