Ahmedabad: At 3:30pm on Saturday, civic workers were frantically laying diversion pipes opposite Vanchetna Kendra in Vastrapur — a last-minute measure to redirect stormwater on the road leading from Sunrise Park Society towards Drive-In Road.A few kilometres away in Shrinandnagar, small sandbag bunds were being hurriedly placed. Neither intervention was planned. Both were triggered by the memory of what happened days earlier, when Bopal and surrounding neighbourhoods with inadequate drainage sat under water long after the rain had stopped.The work being rushed through now — diversion pipes, temporary bunds, and emergency trenches — constituted basics that should have been completed before the monsoon.In Bopal last week, the response to the flooding crisis relied entirely on stopgap measures. Earth movers carved makeshift trenches.“Temporary pipelines spanning 100-300 metres were laid to carry water away from areas that have no proper drainage network at all,” said a senior AMC official. “Near Ghuma lake, dewatering pumps were rushed into operation.”The official said that an under-construction stormwater pumping station was prematurely commissioned, and an existing pumping facility at Bopal lake required an emergency upgrade mid-way.On Friday, Thaltej received 4 inches of rain. Usmanpura, Paldi and Chandkheda recorded between 3 inches and 3.5 inches.Fifty locations across the city’s west were flooded. Dewatering pumps ran late into the night before streets finally cleared by Saturday morning.All gates of the Vasna barrage were opened as a precaution, holding the river at 123 feet.Saturday brought relief. Despite an IMD red alert, Ahmedabad received only scattered drizzle averaging 8mm. Localised totals included 18mm in Vastral, 15.5mm in Bakrol, and 14mm each in Jodhpur and Sarkhej.Mild weather bought time for AMC that better pre-monsoon preparation should have earned for it.The infrastructure gap the rain exposed has not closed. Of 22 recent road cave-ins, 18 locations are still awaiting repairs.
