Traffic took a hit across the national Capital on Friday as intermittent showers caused waterlogging at many places. Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, Nehru Place to ITO, laxmi Nagar, Outer Ring Road, Dhaula Kuan were the worst hit due to waterlogging and traffic jams.
literally a flood-like situation prevailed on roads leading towards Central Delhi with water flowing back from sewers and water drains throwing life out of gear.
In South Delhi, roads leading to New Moti Bagh and Chanakyapuri’s Vinay Marg were chock-a-block. Vehicles crawled at a snail’s pace as major gridlock was reported at BRT corridor to Mathura Road.
Roads leading to Pragati Maidan, ITO remained blocked as heavy rain threw traffic out of gear with signals not working as rain water seeped through traffic lights leaving them defunct. Roads leading to Rajghat, ISBT and Outer Ring Road, Aurangzeb road, Panchsheel Marg, Shantipath, Teen Murti Marg were one of the worst affected.
“It took me an hour and a half hour extra to reach ITO from Shastri Park. With the road from Rajghat to ITO in knee-deep water, commuters were forced to drive through Bahardur Shah Zafar Marg. Today the road was flooded with rain and sewage water. Moreover, because to the rain, traffic movement was also paralysed,” said Aman Chaturvedi.
According to the Delhi Traffic Police, huge traffic jams were witnessed at Mehrauli to Badarpur road, Dhaula Kuan, NH-8, Delhi cantonment and, Naraina’s loha Mandi. Traffic at the entire BRT corridor stretch from Saket to lajpat Nagar remained clogged.
MCD officials claimed that the de-silting was duly done by the civic body thereby blaming the PWD for not doing its work. In South Delhi, Mahipalpur-Badarpur road, Ring Road, Barapullah flyover and IIT-flyover, South extension and Ashram crossing in south Delhi were badly hit. Slow vehicular movement was witnessed at Green Park, Hauz Khas and INA area.
While Delhiites woke up to a sultry morning on Friday with the minimum temperature settling at 26.4 degrees Celsius, rain showers were reported across the Capital in the afternoon. The sky turned cloudy in afternoon and rains with thundershowers occured in some areas.
“The minimum temperature was recorded at 26.4 degrees Celsius, one notch above normal at 8.30 AM. The humidity was 87 per cent,” a MeT official said, adding, no rainfall was predicted. On Thursday, humid weather conditions had persisted in the national Capital with scattered rainfall in parts of the city failing to bring down the mercury level.
While the maximum temperature was registered at 34 degrees Celsius, the minimum temperature had settled at 25.5 degrees Celsius.