Dubai: Traffic between Sharjah and Dubai was at a standstill on Sunday evening, with the daily commute home taking motorists more than four hours.
Rains and thunderstorms that lashed the UAE on Saturday evening saw major intersections and roads submerged that resulted in traffic being diverted to the Dubai by-pass road, and the partial closure of Emirates road close to the National paints roundabout.
Traffic congestion at the Al Ittihad road drove motorists into fits of road rage, with many verbal brawls breaking out between fellow motorists as they tried to change lanes.
"There was literally no escape. Driving to back home to Sharjah on Sunday evening was a nightmare. I left my work at 5:30pm. The drive until Wafi on Al Garhoud was not that bad but after that the traffic just came to a stand still. It took be exactly an hour and 26 minutes to pass the Al Garhoud bridge and from then on there was no point in looking at your watch. I knew, that it will be well past 9pm before I reached home. I finally reached home at King Faisal at 9:46pm," said Javed Khan a Sharjah resident.
It took Vijayan Nair a resident of Al Quasis four hours to get back home yesterday evening from his work place located on the Shaikh Zayed road. According to him he developed a terrible pain on his right leg. "I felt a numbness on my right leg after being stuck in traffic for four long hours. I left work at 7:45pm and reached home by 10:45pm. It was a total nightmare.
“When I finally got down from there vehicle, I felt a terrible pain on my right leg and found myself limping. It usually takes me half-an-hour to reach home in Al Quasis through the Business Bay but yesterday evening I hit traffic after I got down from the fly over that runs alongside the Dubai mall and takes you to the Business Bay. I have no idea how I will be able to get home today. I have no choice but to get stuck in the traffic because as far as I know, the conditions on the road that lead to Sharjah still the same with large ponds of stagnant rain water."
Lama, a resident of Al Wahda in Sharjah, said that she was nearly driven to tears by the heavy traffic congestion. She works at the front desk in an office located on Al Garhoud. Calling her journey back home as backbreaking she said it took her nearly four-and-a-half hours to reach home.
"Talking about it makes me angry and will make me cry. My husband and me were delayed for hours and my 11 year-old son was all alone at home with the maid. He kept calling his mother and father, alternatively, every ten minutes and that drove me to tears. This is not the first time that it rained in Sharjah. Every year when it rains, the residents have to go through this problem of traffic congestion and road closures."
Lama had decided to take a couple of days break from work and have only decided to resume work. "It was took much for me and I am not going to put myself through that agonising journey back home after a hard day's work," she said.
Have your say
How long did it take you to reach home last night? How was your journey into work this morning? If there is heavy rain forecast would you take a day off work?
