Commuters had a tough time reaching their respective destinations due to traffic congestions choking arterial junctions of the national Capital caused by flooding of roads and water-logging following heavy rain on Friday evening.
The adjoining regions of Noida and Ghaziabad were also lashed by the downpour and experienced similar situation. Delhiites fumed and fretted as the rain brought the city to a screeching halt with traffic snarls extending to miles thanks to the heavy water-logging and blocking of roads by fallen trees uprooted by the rain.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) received a total of seven calls between 2 pm and 6 pm including three of water-logging in areas including Rohini, Mahipalpur and Lajpat Nagar.
Four calls regarding tree falling was recieved from Shahdara, Vikaspuri, Sonia vihar and Dwarka.
Harshit Jain, a resident of Delhi, said that his car turned into a boat as he had to wade through knee deep water while returning from work in the evening. “It is an everyday affair for us now to wade through waterlogged roads and being stuck for hours. The city literally turns into a river even if it is minutes of rains,” he said, expressing his disappointment with the authorities.
Waterlogging and traffic jam was reported from several parts of the city including Kashmere Gate ISBT, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi Gate, Ito, Zakhira, Connaught Place, Chirag Delhi, Sainik farms, Hauz Khas, AIIMS, Minto Bridge, Mundka and Sangam Vihar among others.
Shelly, a working woman who lives alone in Sainik Farms, complained that rains have exposed the failures of civic authorities in the city with she covering a 10 minutes stretch in two hours. “There is unregulated traffic in my way to reach home from Sheikh Sarai to Khanpur. I see no traffic police trying to control the traffic while no pumping of the waterlogged roads is done in order to prevent such jams. It is very frustrating,” she stated, adding that frequent power cuts are also a big problem in the area.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Najafgarh recorded 6.5 mm of rain, Ayanagar 5.8 mm, Delhi University 3.5 mm, Lodi road 2.7 mm, Palam 42 mm, Ridge 4 mm, Safdarjung 3 mm, Pitampura 1.5 mm, Pusa 4.5 mm, Salwan public school in Mayur Vihar 1 mm in the last 24 hours till 8:30 am.
In a series of post, the Delhi Traffic Police advised commuters and said, “Traffic is affected on Najafgarh Phirni Road due to water logging at Dhansa Stand and Bahadurgarh Stand. Kindly plan your journey accordingly.” It also said that due to water logging at Anand Parvat, traffic diversions are effective.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast stated that generally cloudy sky with light to moderate rain, thunderstormaccompanied with gusty wind speed. The maximum temperature was recorded at 34.8 degrees Celsius, 0.6 degrees above the normal. The minimum temperature settled at 26.6 degrees Celsius, 0.4 degrees below the normal.
The humidity level was recorded at 85 per cent at 8:30 am and 100 per cent at 5:30 pm, the IMD said.
