Srinagar, July 20 -- Fresh downpour turned Srinagar into a maze of flooded lanes and waterlogged courtyards once again, and it took barely an hour of rain to expose how little has changed beneath the surface of the city's much-publicized upgrade.

Old neighbourhoods watched water rise into shops and homes, while social media filled with photos of submerged streets and pointed questions about where all the promised infrastructure money actually went.

The irony stings because Srinagar's Smart City Mission was supposed to fix exactly this problem.

Officials have told the state legislature that roughly 650 kilometers of storm water drainage network now exists across the city, supported by 104 permanent dewatering stations with a combined pu...