Rain wreaks havoc in Lahore

LAHORE: Heavy but scattered rain wreaked havoc in most of the northern and southern parts of the provincial metropolis here Monday. The Met office predicted more rain during the next 24 hours.

Wasa officials said that the highest rain 107mm was recorded at Tajpura, 105mm at Johar Town, 101mm at Pani Wala Talab, 98mm at Nishter Town, 87mm at Farrukhabad, 82.8mm rain at airport, 81mm each at Lakshmi Chowk and Upper Mall, 76mm at Samanabad, 73.5mm at Gulshan-e-Ravi, 65mm at Chowk Nakhuda, 60mm at Iqbal Town, 58mm at Punjab University and 50mm rain at Jail Road.

The rain, which started early morning turned majority of the city roads into ponds within minutes. Long queues of vehicles were witnessed on all major city roads while roads leading to several public hospitals, including Mayo Hospital, Lady Willingdon, Lady Aitcheson and Lahore Dental Hospital were inundated and caused problems for patients in reaching the hospitals.

Director General LDA, Wasa MD, DC Lahore and other senior officials remained in the field. Wasa MD told this scribe that all the 22 sore points would be cleared until evening. He said a record rain of 107mm was recorded in the city. The sore points, including Lakshmi Chowk, Haji Camp, Firdous Market, Kashmir Road, GPO, Sheranwala Gate, Aik Moriya Pull, Mozang, Qartaba Chowk, Lawrence Road and Ichhra were cleared from rainwater.

Areas, including Railway Road near Aik Moriya Pull, Davis Road, Canal Bank Road (Outside Prime Minister’s residence at Zaman Park), Abbot Road, The Mall, Jail Road and etc looked like lakes and remained inundated in ankle-deep stagnant rainwater for hours causing serious inconvenience to road users besides causing traffic blockage at major crossings across the city. Rainwater also accumulated in many graveyards, including Miani Sahib, Mian Mir Sahib, Township, Samsani (Johar Town), Township, Faisal Town adjacent to Kotha Pind and Pind Rajputan graveyards where many graves caved in.

Meanwhile, Met office said that monsoon currents are penetrating in upper parts of the country. Westerly wave is also affecting upper parts of the country. They predicted that rain, wind, thundershowers are expected in Kashmir, Islamabad, upper/central Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. Hot and humid weather is expected elsewhere in the country.