Peshawar roads into puddles

PESHAWAR: A short spell of rain that lashed the provincial capital on Sunday afternoon inundated many roads and choked sewerage lines which exposed the performance of the civic bodies.

The rainwater was seen flowing on the Grand Trunk (GT)  Road, Khyber Road, Sher Shah Suri Road, Kohat Road, Dilazak Road, Charsadda Road, City Circular Road, Bara Road, Gulberg Road, Saddar Road. It caused immense hardships to motorists and pedestrians alike. 

The pools of water were seen at Suri Pul , under the Mufti Mehmood Flyover, in front of the Governor’s House, Railways Station, Faqirabad Chowk, Gulberg and Nauthia railways crossing and Khyber Road as drains were blocked.

The worst situation was seen at the Kohati Chowk. The locality wore the picture of a pool. The same locality was adversely affected in the last rain in the recent past when a portion of the Kabul River embankment developed a breach. Despite all this no action was taken by the Local Government and Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar or WSSP working under it to improve the situation.

The blockages in the sewerage lines are a routine matter in the city where roads are already in a dilapidated condition and the rainwater compounds the miseries of the people.

The civic bodies have failed to keep the city clean and clear sewerage lines let alone repairing the roads despite tall claims of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led provincial and district governments.

Whenever it rains houses and shops in low-lying areas are inundated. However, the city fathers don’t bother to repair the roads, open the choked manholes and drainage lines.

The provincial government has not paid any attention to the problems facing the capital city in the last four years.

The provincial capital is already facing traffic problem due to the absence of any quality transport service and traffic load on the narrow roads and choking of sewerage lines and flowing of rainwater further multiply miseries of the dwellers.

There could be hardly any road in the city and the cantonment where sewerage lines are properly functioning.

Interestingly, some portions of roads and drainage nullahs recently repaired at a cost of millions of rupees like Gulberg Road, Bara Gate failed to provide any relief to the residents because of the poor and substandard construction work.

Electricity loadshedding added insult to injury as the residents of Peshawar faced hardships after their localities were flooded with rainwater.

As usual power supply was suspended in many localities of the city and was restored after hours.

The electricity transmission lines in the provincial capital are too outdated that many feeders develop faults after rain.

The power consumers have to wait for hours for restoration of power supply after rain.