KARACHI: Karachi remained under thick and dark clouds on Monday and different parts of the metropolis received light and moderate showers during the second half of the day. The downpour continued to play havoc with the metropolis’ ill-maintained traffic, electricity and sewerage systems amid warning from the Met office that the current system is “very likely to stay for the next 24 hours” producing light to moderate rains in lower Sindh, including Karachi.

An official at the Met office said several parts of the city received moderate showers on a second day of the fresh monsoon spell mostly in the evening. A few areas, he said, saw frequent drizzling throughout the day. He said that the south district of the city received moderate rain for a brief period as mostly light to moderate showers with lightning and thunderstorm were reported in the metropolis.

By 8pm Landhi had received maximum 18 millimetres of rainfall followed by PAF Base Faisal 13 millimetres, Jinnah Terminal 6.8 millimetres, University Road 6.5 millimetres and old airport area five millimetres while other observatories of the Met Office received traces of the rain throughout the day in areas, including Surjani Town, North Karachi and PAF Base Masroor.

Sardar Sarfaraz at the Karachi’s Met office said that the low pressure area was present in Northeast Arabian Sea for the last three to four days and the recent rains were the result of the same system. The rains were expected to continue in lower Sindh on Tuesday while losing intensity in some areas, including Karachi. He warned that another system was in the making in the Bay of Bengal.

Current system is ‘very likely to stay for next 24 hours’

“The current situation, trend and data analysis suggest that another low pressure area is building in the Bay of Bengal which is expected to impact Karachi and other parts of lower Sindh,” he said without any timeframe and predicted schedule of the expected new system.

Though the rain count shared by the Met office did not suggest any major spell or heavy downpour, the brief drizzling and moderate shower led to collapse of the traffic system causing hours-long traffic jams on almost all key roads only to test the patience of commuters.

The traffic flow that started slowing down at around 5pm turned worse by sunset on key roads and took hours to get eased amid development work on key roads, non-functioning of several traffic signals and absence of traffic officials from some intersections.

The authorities, however, blamed accumulated water on main roads that affected the traffic pace that ultimately turned into gridlock. They also found much larger number of vehicles on roads on Monday being the first day of the week after two-day weekly break.

“First the traffic flow was slow due to water accumulation and then drivers lost patience while trying to reach their destination that led to lane violations and resulted in gridlock,” said a senior traffic official. “The south, central and east districts remained the worst affected, which house a number of offices of private and government organisations as well as educational institutions and densely populated neighbourhoods. Similarly, key commercial places are also in the same district from where people left for home and other destinations only to put extra pressure on the roads.”

Roads around Korangi Industrial Area remained the worst affected which stretched to Shahra-e-Faisal through different links. A link on Shahra-e-Faisal near Hotel Metrople to PIDC intersection faced the same situation and traffic in couple of phases of DHA was also remained disturbed for hours.

Within first few drops of the rain, the power supply system in the city failed to prove its effectiveness and traditionally most parts of the city remained in darkness even after hours of the outages.

K-Electric took precautionary measures in several areas as an excuse for the power suspended power failure and claimed to have launched repair work in others neighbourhoods.

Meanwhile, the dead level of water in Thado dam has risen three inches causing water overflow into adjacent localities.

K-Electric in a brief statement warned that overflow of water from Malir Nadi was affecting its transmission towers in the Malir Gadap circuit. “Our teams are trying to reach but are being pushed back by the onslaught of water,” it said.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2019