KARACHI, Aug 22: Wednesday’s spell of rain once again exposed the working of the city government as almost all major thoroughfares and streets of the city were submerged by rainwater, paralysing civic life and causing immense inconvenience to motorists, commuters and pedestrians.

The old city area’s sewerage system, which had collapsed last week, wrought havoc as filthy sewage gushing out from choked lines and gutters got mixed with rainwater, flooding various roads and busy streets of the old city, including those of Saddar.

A major portion of Sharea Faisal, near Star Gate, was submerged by waist-deep water, closing both tracks of the main artery for vehicular traffic. A motorist who got stuck there called Dawn to say that he had to abandon his car on the road.

“You need a boat to cross over the submerged road,” he quipped.

Hundreds of people returning home from work had to walk to their destinations due to the closure of Sharea Faisal at Star Gate and people going to and from Quaidabad and Karsaz had to experience great difficulties in reaching home.

A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, who works in the Landhi Industrial Area, said that it took him five hours to reach home.

Many cars were also seen stranded on numerous other major roads where knee-deep water had accumulated in the wake of the rains.

Dug-up roads and a number of other major arteries, which had developed trenches and deep potholes in the recent rains and had remained unfilled, also proved to be a nightmare for drivers.

People going to and from Korangi faced hardships as the main road leading to Korangi was closed for vehicular traffic as a portion of the road was heavily flooded.

Though the Liaquatabad underpass was also flooded with rainwater, vehicular traffic continued to pass through it as it was not officially closed.

The absence of streetlights on major roads also made life difficult for motorists.

Patients and their attendants visiting the city’s major public sector hospitals – Civil Hospital, JPMC, NICVD and NICH – faced immense hardships as both the roads where these hospitals are situated were submerged with rainwater.

The major thoroughfares which were heavily flooded in the wake of Wednesday’s rains included Aiwan-i-Sadr Road, Court Road, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road, M.R. Kiyani Road, Shahrah-i-Liaquat, Mohammad Bin Qasim Road, parts of M.A. Jinnah Road, University Road, Banaras Chowk, Manghopir Road, Shahrah-i-Pakistan, Tariq Road, the main SMCHS road, I.I. Chundrigar Road and different sections of Sharea Faisal.

Attributing the cause of flooded roads to the CDGK’s belated move of cleaning and de-silting the city’s major storm-water drains, concerned citizens said that had the authorities taken up the task of cleaning and de-silting the city’s seven major nullahs and over 400 link nullahs round-the-year, citizens would not have faced such an ordeal.