A heavy downpour that lasted for two hours on Sunday inundated most parts of the Assam capital, bringing normal life to a halt, with many localities remaining under water till late night. Kamrup (Metro) deputy commissioner M Angamuthu said the rainfall ranged from 80 mm to 140 mm in different parts of the city, causing up to six feet of inundation in certain localities, and causing damage to roads and bridges apart from private property. While drains overflowed and most of the major roads, including GS Road, RG Barua Road, BN Saikia Road and Panjabari Road were converted to swift-flowing rivers due to the heavy downpour, the authorities had to restrict movement on certain roads in view of the inundation. “Luckily, it was a Sunday and there wasn’t much traffic or pedestrians on the roads,” Angamuthu said. Residents however accused the government and civic authorities of failing to maintain the drainage system of the largest city in the Northeast despite tall promises made by the authorities. The government had failed to keep the promise of installing more water pumps to drain out the water faster to the Brahmaputra. Movement of traffic to upper Assam and Meghalaya on National Highway 715 – also Asian Highway 1 that runs from Tokyo in the east to Istanbul in the west through the Assam capital – was severely distupted particularly between Jorabat and Khanapara, with trucks, buses and private vehicles getting stranded for several hours due to the inundation. Several private vehicles were damaged when they hit dividers and other vehicles after being washed away by the floods.
