Overnight rainfall and water-logging in low-lying areas in the national Capital caused massive traffic jams across the city leaving commuters stranded in long queues of vehicles at major roads including ITO, MB Road, Rao Tularam flyover, Delhi–Noida Direct (DND) among others.
The vehicles were moving at snail's pace at several parts of the city, including AIIMS, Dhaula Kuan, Geeta Colony bridge, IP Extension and Mehrauli. Long queues of vehicles were seen here. “It took me two hours just to reach from Noida to Dhaula Kuan,” said Shobit Sharma, who was on his way to the IGI airport.
Due to water logging in low lying areas of the city, several vehicles broke down on submerged roads. Massive traffic jam was also reported in Delhi’s MB road after there was water logging at the Railway Underpass Pul Prahladpur area.
“Traffic is affected on MB Road (Both carriageway) due to water logging at Railway Underpass Pul Prahladpur. Kindly avoid the stretch,” Delhi Traffic Police (DTP) wrote on its Twitter handle. “To keep Delhi roads safe and congestion free, @dtptraffic, disaster management teams & civic agencies took upon the herculean task of clearing fallen trees and branches after heavy downpour. Delhi Traffic Police also actively regulated traffic,” it said in another tweet.
Several trees were reported uprooted due to the strong winds and thunderstorms across the city. Near Delhi cantonment area, traffic remained blocked for hours on both carriageways after a big tree fell on the road.
According to Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), following the massive dust storm followed by gusty winds and a thunderstorm in the city the strong winds uprooted trees at nearly 44 locations, 13 trees fell in Delhi’s Central Zone, while 10 in south zone, seven in west zone and 11 in Najfagarh zone.
“In Central Zone reports regarding uprooting of trees was received from Defence Colony, DDA Flat Sunlight Colony Part-2, Lajpat Nagar area, New Friends colony, Nanakchand Basti in Kotla Mubarak pur area, Gurudwara road in Kotla Mubarak pur, South Extension- II, Okhla Phase -1, Sarita Vihar and among others,” as per MCD.
In the South zone, trees were uprooted in the Safdarjung Enclave area, Munirka, Malviya Nagar, CR Park, Vasant Vihar area. Four incidents of building collapse were also reported.