Heavy downpour in the national Capital and its adjoining areas led to massive traffic snarls on most of the important stretches as thousands of motorists were left with no other option other than to wait for the heavily water logged roads to get cleared. There was a virtual gridlock during the non-peak hours on Friday afternoon. Delhi Traffic Police reported major waterlogging at around 15 points in South, South east, were reported by Delhi Traffic Police.
The Delhi Traffic Police tweeted, "Waterlogging at RTR (Rao Tula Ram) point towards the airport (Indira Gandhi International Airport) and advised motorists to avoid the stretch. Many of people going to the airport to catch up their flights were inconvenienced.”
To make matter worse, a cave in was reported at South Delhi's Savitri flyover. It resulted in massive traffic jam at the road leading to the IIT at around 5.45 pm. It soon spiraled to other roads as the cascading impact brought down traffic to a halt.
As the rain started around 3 pm, the Delhi Traffic Police took the social media network sites such as Facebook (FB), Instagram and twitter to issue traffic advisory and aware the commuters about the water loggings and traffic jam.
Heavy waterloggings and jams were reported at Durgapuri towards Nathu Flyover at 11 Murti, Sardar Patel Marg towards Mother Teresa Crescent and RTR towards Airport near Shani Mandir , Modi Mill Flyover (both carriageways) and Mathura Road towards Bhairon Marg due to waterlogging.
"Traffic was affected on Savitri Flyover, Ring Road towards Greater Kailash and RTR towards Munirka due to waterlogging. Kindly avoid these stretches," said a Traffic Police official.
Further, traffic movement was also impacted in the central Delhi as well as water logging coupled with police restrictions on vehicular movement on the roads leading to Parliament Street and Jantar Mantar. Delhi Traffic Police tweeted early in the day, "Jantar Mantar and Parliament street. "Traffic movement is closed on Sansad Marg from Patel Chowk to Jantar Mantar. Kindly avoid the stretch".
Water logging was also reported on the Outer Ring road from Munirka towards airport, Kaya Maya lal Kuan, MB Road, Aali Village red light and Ashram towards Badar Pur, Pul Prahlad Pur Railway under pass, Mahatma Gandhi Marg (Ring Road) from Ashram towards Dhaula Kuan near Andrews Ganj were reported. Further, waterlogging was observed at Okhla Mandi, Railway underpass from Mehrauli Badarpur road towards Mehrauli and Sarita Vihar underpass from Mehrauli Badarpur road towards Mehrauli.
It affected movement of vehicles on the roads as motorists could be seen maneuvering through knee deep water to reach to their destinations. "However, normalcy was restored later in the evening as water has receded from the affected roads", said an official.