KARACHI, Aug 10: Over the past 48 hours, rains have inflicted considerable damage on the city’s neglected infrastructure and played havoc with many of its roads, storm-water drains, sewerage lines and power distribution system.

Not only the old and obsolete utility networks collapsed, but also the recently-built underpasses in Liaquatabad and Gharibabad were also rendered unusable, rather dangerous, for commuters as the rainwater turned them into a lakes.

Apparently, the former was flooded with the spillage from the nearby storm-water drain, called Gujjar nullah, which failed to serve the purpose it was laid for, as usual.

The government’s indefensibly belated move to clear the city’s 64 major nullahs and 430 link drains resulted in flooding of various roads and streets, virtually turning them into death traps for motorists and pedestrians.

Ankle-to-knee-deep water remained accumulated on different sections of the so-called “VVIP thoroughfares”, Sharea Faisal and Aiwan-i-Sadr Road, as well as M. R. Kyani Road and Shahrah-i-Liaquat (formerly Frere Road) and the link road on which are situated the Sindh Assembly and Sindh High Court buildings.

Due to the closure of different sections of Sharea Faisal and its link roads by the flooding, access from all sides to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centres could not have been restored till Friday evening.

Various other major and busy arteries, which included parts of M. A. Jinnah Road, main Landhi Road, Deen Mohammad Wafai Road, Mohammad Bin Qasim Road (formerly Burnes Road), parts of Shahrah-i-Quaideen, also remain inundated while innumerable streets in various localities, particularly those in the Old City lanes and low-lying areas remained flooded and unattended.

The dug-up roads made motorists and bikers vulnerable to accidents and there were many instances where they got their vehicles damaged or sustained injuries while driving over the trenches and potholes covered by rainwater. A perturbed motorist remarked: “It seems that the CDGK is going to create a history by undertaking road construction during the monsoon season unlike their counterparts in all other major cities of the world which usually avoid such work in the June-August period.”