Dubai/Sharjah: Heavy rains continued to play havoc with traffic on UAE roads as motorists spent hours on Tuesday in traffic jams due to flooded roads, broken down cars.
Motorists in Ajman, Sharjah and Dubai were the worst affected with inundated roads and diversions.
Many roads in Sharjah and those leading to Dubai were once again water-logged because of rainfall on Monday night and Tuesday morning.
However, traffic within Dubai city remained more or less unaffected, thanks to the emergency crisis teams of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority and the Dubai Municipality.
The metro operation was not affected. Though there were reports of water leakage at some stations, the situation was contained by a dedicated team formed to ensure smooth metro operation.
The major chaos happened on Emirates Road, one of the busiest highways linking Dubai with neighbouring Sharjah and Ajman. The road was closed after 12.15pm for traffic bound from Dubai to Sharjah due to flooding near National Paints Roundabout in Sharjah.
"The roads in Dubai are fine but the problem is with the Sharjah-bound traffic because Sharjah is unable to receive the heavy flow of traffic due to flooding on its main and internal roads," said Hussain Al Banna, Assistant of RTA Emergency and Crises Team of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority.
"We kept the traffic moving by pumping out water from the roads, keeping the traffic signals in order and diverting traffic wherever it was necessary," Al Banna said.
The RTA team also helped Sharjah municipality teams to pump water from the flooded Sharjah side of the Emirates Road.
A police official at Sharjah Police said the Operations Control Room went live on Sharjah Radio at 11.15am on Tuesday morning to advise motorists to drive safely on the roads.
Apart from Emirates Road, motorists were stuck in the slow-paced traffic for hours as they tried to pass through Al Wahda Street, and residents did not fare any better as their neighbourhoods were also flooded.
The city's most-affected areas were University City Road, Al Zahra Square, Sharjah City Centre, and Kuwait Roundabout, apart from the industrial areas.
Several neighbourhoods, which had not recovered from Saturday's rainfall, were further burdened by Tuesday's storm.
Residents of Umm Tarrafa, Al Riffah, Tarfan, Al Mussalla and Umm Khanoor had no other option but to call police for help.
