Rain showers respite from heat, misery to commuters

Bringing the much-needed respite to Delhiites from scorching heat, monsoon rain made a comeback in Delhi on Monday morning and brought down the temperatures significantly. However, on the flip side, commuters had a harrowing time as heavy showers led to severe waterlogging in major roads of city exposing the authorities’ tall claims of monsoon preparedness.

The Safdarjung observatory, considered the official reading for the city, recorded of 11.2 mm rainfall while areas under Palam, Ayanagar, Ridge and lodhi Road received 12.7 mm, 16.4 mm, 8.8 mm and 14.4 mm rainfall respectively in the last 24 hours, a MeT department official said. Humidity in air oscillated between 54 per cent and 98 per cent.

The maximum temperature plunged seven notches below normal to 29.7 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature settled at a pleasant 25.8 degrees Celsius, two notches below season’s average, the official said.Though the monsoon had arrived in Delhi at the end of June this year, but the city didn’t experience much rainfall over the last two weeks. The last spell of rain was observed in the city on June 25 with the arrival of the Southwest Monsoon. Ever since, the city has remained mostly dry. Monday’s rain have been the first showers the month of July. 

Despite the tall claims on monsoon preparedness, authorities were caught unprepared as several places got waterlogged within the first hour of rain.

Heavy waterlogging was reported in areas like Nehru Place, Kashmere Gate, ISBT, Kalkaji, Rohini, ITO and Dhaula Kuan area, leading to major traffic jam adding to the woes of the public.

School students had harrowing time as roads leading to Malviya Nagar and Hauz Khas remained virtually choked for hours. “I had to drop my kid to her school. We got late only because of the heavy traffic jam,” said Siddharth, a resident of Malviya Nagar.Waterlogging in the city put a big question mark over civic bodies and PWD’s efforts of desilting. 

In South Delhi, traffic jam was reported on Ring Road near Greater Kailash and Aurbindo Marg. A heavy jam was reported from Sarita Vihar due to waterlogging. In East Delhi, Mayur Vihar and Geeta Colony witnessed traffic jam near metro construction work. Commuters going towards Bahardur Shah Zafar Marg, Pragati Maidan were at the receiving end of the traffic mess.

Officer goers had a harrowing experience as vehicles moved at a snail’s pace on almost all the major roads on Monday morning.“The route from South Delhi to my office in Gurgaon was totally chock-a-block following the continuous rain for hours in the morning. Within a few hours the situation became worse and I was stuck on road for over two hours,” said Yatin, a resident of Kalkaji.

However, many residents felt a sigh of relief from hot and humid weather conditions prevailing over the national Capital for the last few days as the much-awaited showers brought down the temperatures and turned the weather pleasant. According to MeT department, the good news is that the rainy spell will continue for at least another two to three days.

Predicting more rain for Tuesday, the weatherman said, “The sky will be generally cloudy. Thunderstorm with rain would occur in many areas. The maximum temperature is likely to settle at 35 degrees Celsius.” On Sunday, the maximum temperature was recorded at 38.4 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature was 31.2 degrees Celsius.