Heavy rains lash Hyderabad, IMD issues thunderstorm warning

Heavy rains lashed Hyderabad for a few hours on Monday affecting normal life across the city. In a familiar sight, many roads went under water even as commuters faced major traffic jams. The situation was only worsened as the rain coincided with several processions of Ganesha immersion across the city.  Many workers of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and officers of the Hyderabad Traffic Police were seen at work, trying to restore normalcy, even as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has put out a two-day thunderstorm warning. Areas in the heart of the city like Punjagutta, Begumpet, Somajiguda, Khairatabad and Masab Tank reported water logging along with other areas like Madhapur and Kondapur in Cyberabad. @KTRTRS Respected KTR appreciate your hard, smart and good work for Telangana issue: drain leakage on to road. We have a problem in Balaji layout, Shapur, UMCC, hyderabad. The drainage water is coming to to road because nala is blocked by a apartment requesting your help pic.twitter.com/ZL7HQfeVvQ — Eric shravan (@EricShravan) September 18, 2018 Hi Sirs, #TummalaNageswaraRao #KTR #KCR. 17/09/2018 afternoon around 1PM, we got a rain for around 20mins. But the water is flowing like floods. This is not the area very long to hyderabad or outskirts of Hyderabad. This is near Mindspace.@KTRTRS @TelanganaCMO @trspartyonline pic.twitter.com/0ifJXUCiGI — raja krishna (@rajask132) September 17, 2018 Taking to Twitter, Vishwajeet Kampati, director of the Enforcement,Vigilance & Disaster Management wing, GHMC, said, "Moderate to heavy rains expected in various parts of the city. Citizens are advised to stay indoors, unless unavoidable. Disaster Relief Force (DRF) teams, Monsoon Emergency teams and all Emergency teams are ready and alert. Please dial 100 for any assistance."   The IMD, in its two-day warning, said that thunder storm associated with lightning would occur at isolated places in the districts of Vikarabad, Sangareddy, Medak, Rangareddy, Hyderabad, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Wanarpathy, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Mahbubabad, Warangal (Urban and Rural), Jayashankar Bhupalapalle and Bhadadri Kothagudem.  While things are predicted to settle on Wednesday, heavy rain would return on Thursday and Friday to accompany the thunder storms and lightning, the IMD said.  GHMC Commissioner M Dana Kishore also took note of the predicted rainfall and has instructed officials to be alert.    In June this year, stating that it had deployed teams ready to tackle waterlogging, inundation and other problems that low lying areas could face this monsoon, the GHMC also said that several enforcement drives were conducted to remove encroachments on drains. The GHMC has also deployed teams with all necessary equipment for road repairs and for dewatering low lying areas with pump sets if there is waterlogging.