Lahore Traffic Police’s futile attempts to control traffic on the city’s major roads after it merely half an hour of rain forced many people to abandon their vehicles and manage the traffic themselves. These ‘volunteer traffic wardens’ performed duties of traffic policemen on Ferozpur road and Wahdat Road and received the gratitude of commuters by making the traffic flow smoothly, which the trained traffic wardens had failed to do.
After half an hour of monsoon showers, the main arteries of the provincial capital including Canal Road, Mall Road and Ferozpur Road were completely clogged with traffic. The plight of pedestrians and commuters on two-wheeled vehicles doubled as rain water inundated roads. The shutdown of traffic signals also added to the miseries of people as traffic wardens showed their incompetence by failing to control traffic. The Canal Road underpasses were inundated with water, as the drainage system failed and traffic wardens blocked traffic at the FC College underpass, causing traffic to stagnate for hours on all adjacent roads of Shadman area. Rain water created pools on major roads, causing traffic jams on Mall Road, Main Boulevard, Ferozpur Road, Shadman Road, Garden Town Road, Gulberg, Link Road, Multan Road, Railway Road, Lakhsami Chowk and Circular Road.
The newly-constructed TEPA drains were not able to successfully drain water and Lawrence Road remained flooded for more than two hours, despite two water pumps installed at a monsoon drain camp on the road. The traffic from Shadman Chowk to Governor House, and China Chowk to Charing Cross remained blocked due to rain water and VIP movement in the area. In many low lying areas, rain water entered into houses especially in northern parts of the city. The areas of Fateh Garh, Mughalpura, Khokhar Road, Amir Road, Sham Nagar, Ravi Road, Garhi Shahu, Badami Bagh, Shadbagh, Misri ShahGoal Bagh, and Mughalpura were most affected areas.
38mm rain recorded yesterday: About 38 millimeters of rain was recorded in Lahore on Thursday, decreasing the temperature of the city but increasing the level of relative humidity.
The maximum temperature recorded in Lahore was 34 Celsius, while the minimum was 26 Celsius, said the Met Office. Humidity levels were recorded at 81 percent and 82 percent in the morning and evening, respectively. The maximum temperature would remain from 33 Celsius to 35 Celsius in Lahore on Friday. The Met Office also said the well-marked monsoon low pressure (strong weather system), after raining heavily over Sindh, had weakened, and now lay as a low pressure area over the upper parts of Sindh. Thus, the current spell of heavy monsoonal rains was very likely to weaken in the next 24 hours. However, under the influence of this low pressure area, scattered rains of moderate intensity are expected in Sindh during the next 2 days.
Scattered rain and thundershowers with isolated heavy falls are expected in Sindh, North-East Balochistan, Punjab, Kashmir and Hazara division, today (Friday) whereas scattered rain and thundershowers with isolated heavy fall occurred in Sindh, Punjab, Eastern Balochistan and Kashmir on Thursday.
