2-hr rain gets parts of city under water

A heavy rainfall submerged parts of the capital in knee-deep water yesterday, causing much suffering to city dwellers.
Beginning early morning, the rain came down hard around 8:00am and continued for two hours. The water logging again exposed the poor drainage system in the city.
Roads, lanes and bi-lanes in Rayerbazar, Jigatala, Dhanmondi, Hazaribagh, Green Road, Shantinagar, Tejturi Bazar, Mohammadpur and Mirpur and some other lower-lying areas in the city were inundated.
Commuters, especially students and office goers, suffered a lot as vehicles and rickshaws were stranded in roads.
“I couldn't go to office on time as there was knee-deep water in front of my house. Later, I crossed the waterlogged road by a rickshaw to go to my office,” said Suman Miah, a resident of Tajmahal Road in Mohammadpur.
Once the road is submerged, it takes the drainage system at least an hour to clear the water, he added.
Over 100 vehicles were stranded in the knee-deep water on the Rokeya Sarani between Kazipara and Mirpur-10. The scenes in many other parts of the city were not different.
Asked about the water logging situation in the city, engineer A K M Shahid Uddin of Dhaka Wasa said, “I myself was stuck at my Jigatala home for a couple of hours due to water logging in the area.”
It is normal that the city's drainage system would take at least one to two hours to drain away the rainwater, he mentioned.
On the capacity of the city's drainage system, Shahid Uddin said they have just completed the project -- “Removal of Water Logging in Dhaka City (phase-II)” -- under which the Wasa installed pipes to drain out rainwater.
Initiated in July 2010, the Tk 198.31 crore project was scheduled to be completed by June this year. But it ended ahead of schedule.
“The drainage system has improved under the project but the city has expanded by this time,” he mentioned.
Currently, the Wasa has piped drainage system in the 140 square kilometre area of the city out of its total coverage area of 360 sq km, according to the 2012-2013 annual report of Dhaka Wasa.  
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Met office said rainfall might continue today and tomorrow.
Many districts experienced rainfall yesterday due to an impact of a low formed in the western Bay of Bengal, said Shah Alam, director at Dhaka Met office.
There was 24 ml of rain in the capital from 6:00 am Sunday to 6:00 am Monday, while it rained 40 ml in the next five hours, said Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
The highest 41ml rain was recorded in Patuakhali yesterday morning.
The districts which were drenched with rain include Sylhet, Chittagong, Chandpur, Mymensingh, Rangamati, Pabna, Dinajpur and Patuakhali.