With heavy rainfalls lashing the national capital for the second consecutive day, many areas of Delhi witnessed waterlogging on Sunday, causing traffic snarls for commuters. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday ordered that all the schools in Delhi will remain closed on Monday. Kejriwal also cancelled Sunday holiday to all officers and ministers and directed them to be on the ground to inspect problem areas.
The heavy rain submerged parks, underpasses, markets and even hospital premises, and caused chaos on the roads. There are reports of major road caved in Rohini and Greater Kailash areas on Sunday. Pictures and videos of commuters wading through knee-deep water flooded social media platforms, raising concerns about the efficiency of the city's drainage infrastructure. According to officials, the Public Works Department (PWD) received 38 complaints related to waterlogging till the afternoon. The majority of the complaints pertained to Okhla main road, Kamla Nagar, Nilothi, Ranhola and Kirari.
"The PWD control room has been monitoring the situation of waterlogging through 24X7 CCTV camera surveillance. Apart from CCTV cameras, they also receive complaints from people through email, WhatsApp, social media and phone," a PWD official said.
The NDMC has received 42 complaints regarding water logging. Due to water logging, the power supply was cut in North Avenue, a high profile area to avoid any accident. The Delhi Traffic Police has also been alerting commuters through its official Twitter handle about traffic congestion due to waterlogging in some of the areas of the national capital.
Meanwhile, CPRO Northern Railway Deepak Kumar said a strict watch is being kept to run trains from Delhi area safely because of non-stop heavy rains.
Eight pumps are being run at the Delhi-Sabzi Mandi area and the station trainable area to pump water out of tracks. Trains in Delhi are running at their normal scheduled time.
The MeT Office has issued a “yellow” alert, warning of moderate rain which could cause more problems for the residents of Delhi. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has cancelled the Sunday leave of all government officials and instructed them to be on the field. He also announced all schools would remain close on Monday.
"In view of the torrential rains in the last two days and keeping in mind the warnings of the meteorological department, all schools will remain closed on Monday," Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi.
The traffic police officials said waterlogging has been also reported in areas of Lajpat Nagar, Neb Sarai, Rajdhani Park, Okhla underpass, the road near Delhi Golf Club.