Ghaziabad, July 27 (IANS) Heavy rains paralysed normal life in Ghaziabad and other National Capital Region (NCR) towns in western Uttar Pradesh. Vasundhara, Khoda and Greater Noida (West) were the worst hit localities in the city.
Traffic came to a near-standstill on NH 24, NH 58, NH 91 and the newly-constructed Raj Nagar Extension Elevated Road in Ghaziabad, besides most other city roads, due to waterlogging.
Due to heavy rainfall, a wall in Khoda locality bordering Delhi collapsed in which a child was killed.
The downpour also posed a threat to the lives of residents of various housing societies here, including Vartalok and Pragyakunj societies of Vasundhara area. Empty plots adjoining the walls of such societies were filled with rain water. As a precautionary measuere, residents of the affected sides of the buildings were asked to temporarily vacate their flats.
A road connecting Vartalok with Mewar Institute got washed away following waterlogging, severely affecting communication on the road.
What surprised the people most was flooding of the newly-constructed 10-km elevated road from UP Gate to Raj Nagar Extension, which looked like a canal carrying water to irrigate fields. This exposed a major technical flaw in the construction of this road.
The rains played the leveller across the city, with free water flowing entering the collectorate premises, civil courts compound, residential compounds of district officials and municipal officials' residences, among others.
Similar complaints were also reported from the residents of Govindpuram, Karpuri Puram and Swarn Jayantipuram, who had to wade through knee-deep water to make it to their work places.
Drains could be seen overflowing in front of commercial establishments at RDC, Navyug Market, Clock Tower and other prominent business centres of the city.
"We have deployed our entire team of officers in the affected areas. The police, home guards, citizen volunteers, NDRF personnel and civil defence volunteers are in action in the worst affected areas so as to minimise inconvenience to the people," said C.P. Singh, the Municipal Commissioner of Ghaziabad.
