Heavy rains bring life to standstill in Lahore

LAHORE: Heavy rains in parts of the country including Lahore brought the life to a standstill on Friday with more rains predicted for the next coming days.

The rains started early morning and continued intermittently till afternoon that eventually submerged the roads in knee deep water.

Major roads, not only in Northern Lahore but also in several posh localities, were presenting pictures of lakes and ponds hours after the downpour had stopped.

Many vehicles and motorcycles were seen broken down in various parts of the city along with massive traffic jams.

Underpasses along the Canal Bank Road, Main Boulevard Gulberg, Jane Mandar, Lakshami Chowk, Chowk Nakhuda, Mozang, Revaz Garden, Kashmir Road, roads around Lahore Railways Station, Chuburji, Aziz Road, Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Mason Road, Zeldar Road, Ghazi Road, Samanabad, Lawrence Road, Main Boulevard Iqbal Town, Wahdat Colony, Shadbagh, portions of Circular Road, Sabzazar, Abbot Road, Montgomery Road, Gawalmandi, Data Nagar, Nishat Colony, Nishtar Town, Tajpura, Mughalpura, various roads in Johar Town, portions of Canal Road from Thokar Niaz Baig to Jubilee Town, McLeod Road, Sir Agha Khan Road, Empress Road and Joray Pul were the worst affected areas.

Steady rains and strong winds had caused felling of trees and branches, hampering smooth vehicular movement on a number of roads including the Canal Bank Road.

Wet conditions and winds had tripped over 230 LESCO feeders, depriving major parts of Lahore of electricity. At least 70 feeders could not be restored till filing of this report.

More rains predicted

According to experts, strong monsoon currents are penetrating upper and lower parts of the country. They have also warned that a westerly wave is also affecting upper/western parts of the country.

Local meteorological department has forecast scattered rain-wind thundershower with isolated heavy falls for Islamabad, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan, Kashmir, eastern Balochistan and Sindh during the next couple of days.