71mm of rain cripples Ahmedabad, leaves roads waterlogged

It took only a few hours of incessant rain to turn the city civic body's lofty promises of a flood-free monsoon into a soggy mess. Streets turned into streams, homes were inundated, roads caved in and infrastructure buckled under pressure.

The downpour between noon and 4 pm has exposed a harsh reality - that the city's vulnerability to urban flood remains high, despite assurances from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) of improvements in the stormwater drainage system.In Shela, near Sky City apartments, a large section of the road caved-in, the visuals of which went viral over social media.
Even the iconic Sindhu Bhavan Road could not escape the wrath of the rain, which disrupted traffic. The worst affected areas were Science City and Gota, which received a staggering six inches of rain each within three hours. Bopal, Naroda, Sarkhej-Chandlodia and Chandkheda followed closely with four and three inches of rainfall respectively.
Even posh areas like Usmanpura, Jodhpur, Bodakdev and Ranip were not spared, recording a minimum of 2 inches of rain.
The stretch between Damru Circle and Sola resembled a river, while several areas along the BRTS corridor, including the Jayamangalam route and Shivaranjani, were waterlogged.
Auda's recent road-digging activities for stormwater lines and drainage improvements backfired spectacularly. Several incomplete trenches remained exposed, creating dangerous waterlogging zones. Vejalpur's Shrinandnagar was heavily flooded, while two AMTS buses got stuck in the slush near Vrindavan Heights in Gota. Homes in Juhapura, a densely populated locality, were flooded due to overflowing drains.
The iconic road connecting Indira Bridge and Sardar Nagar near the airport was another casualty of the downpour. By mid-afternoon, the Mithakali and Akbarnagar underpasses were rendered completely unusable, forcing traffic diversions. Later, the Makarba and Silverstar underpasses also succumbed to the rising water levels.
Even the Durga School underpass in Chandlodia could not withstand the water pressure and got submerged. Across Gujarat, 211 of 252 talukas received at least 1mm of rain on Sunday, indicating widespread rainfall across the state.
In all, 38 talukas received 50mm or more and 39 talukas received 25mm to 50mm of rainfall. The state is likely to receive widespread rain for the next five days, the IMD forecast said.