Delhi on Saturday witnessed massive traffic jams all over the city majorly due to the persistent rainfall, waterlogging and partly due to kanwaria movement on certain stretches. Several arterial roads such as North Delhi’s Azad Market and the road connecting ISBT flyover towards Shashtri Park area too witnessed monster jam as piles of vehicles due to waterlogging and movement of kanwarias.
The day started off as cloudy but it started raining cats and dogs from noon, bringing almost entire city to a standstill.
A Traffic Police official said, “Heavy rainfall creates potholes on roads which create intense traffic situations. Also another problem is that traffic signals stop working due to which a red signal does not change to green and commuters get agitated and move forward causing a chock-a-block.”
likewise, there was huge traffic jam under Moolchand flyover, Naraina T-point to loha Mandi, Aurobindo Marg, Yusuf Sarai, Chittaranjan Park, Greater Kailash, Badarpur to Ashram and Jasola. The traffic mayhem was more prominent in the afternoon at ITO, Badarpur flyover and other parts.
Vehicles continued to move at a snail’s pace on several roads such as Mahipalpur Chowk, Rangpuri U-turn near Radisson Hotel, Zakhira flyover, Seelampuri, Modi flyover, Inderlok, Patel Nagar, Netaji Subhash Marg, Mukarba Chowk, Raja Garden, laxmi Nagar, NH-24, Wazirabad road, Mehrauli-Mahipalpur road, Saket, Malviya Nagar, Vayusenabad, Azad Market Chowk due to waterlogging making life difficult for the commuters.
The police official further said that the situation worsen as many people opted to go for outings on Saturday, being the start of the weekend. Areas near malls and multiplexes were majorly affected as more vehicles along with persistent rain created disturbances. “We have deployed additional officials to help ease the traffic,” said the official.
Delhi Traffic Police took to micro-blogging site Twitter and Facebook to warn commuters of congestion due to waterlogging and kept updating about traffic congestion around various places and warn the public of which roads to avoid. They further said that the situation was likely to continue till Sunday.
According to Traffic Police in their tweets, there was traffic jam in both carriageways from Mehrauli-Badarpur road towards Sainik Farm as a tree was uprooted. Similarly, obstruction in traffic in the carriageway from Khajuri towards Bhajan Pura due to waterlogging in the area.
While traffic disrupted in the carriageway from Savitri Cinema towards Chirag Delhi due to breakdown of a bus. The traffic came to halt from Jakhira Flyover towards Kamal T-point and Underpass Jakhira flyover due to heavy rainfall and waterlogging.
The traffic also disturbed from both carriageways from MB Road and from Khanpur towards Hamdard due to waterlogging.
People took to social networking sites complaining about the traffic situations on the arterial roads of the city due to the heavy showers.
Delhi resident Natasha Singh tweeted about the incessant rain in the national Capital and compared it with rain in Mumbai. Her tweet read, “#Delhirains on the verge of beating #Mumbairains.”
Another tweet from Dibyanshu Pandey, a lawyer, said that the heavy rainfall and traffic did not stop Delhiites from going out and enjoying on a Saturday. His tweet read, “#Delhirains and #Delhitraffic no deterrent for #Delhiites! #Happymonsoon.” Pandey also attached a picture of the traffic situation at Connaught Place.
Traffic movements were affected at several places due to movements of kanwarias.
