As overnight rains in Delhi-NCR threw normal life out of gear, leading to severe waterlogging and long traffic snarls for several hours in several parts of the Capital, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Thursday expressed serious concern and dissatisfaction. Her meeting came the night after several areas in Delhi submerged and social media was awash with videos of people wading knee-deep in the accumulated rainwater. She directed officials to inspect areas that are prone to waterlogging, even on days when there is no rain.
The chief minister, however, expressed satisfaction that, despite the heavy rain, no waterlogging was reported this time at traditionally problematic zones like Minto Road and ITO junction. “As you have observed, we conducted multiple inspections at Barapullah, Kushak Drain, and Minto Bridge. Despite heavy rainfall, there was no waterlogging, which was a legacy. This time, there was no such thing. ITO and Barapullah were smooth,” she said on the sidelines of an event. Notably, waterlogging was reported in her own Shalimar Bagh constituency.
Videos of flooded underpasses, submerged vehicles and people stranded in above-waist level water have surfaced on social media. Roads in Delhi’s ITO, where the Public Works Department office is located, were waterlogged following the downpour.
From ITO to Old Rohtak Road, Delhi-Jaipur highway (NH-8) and Madhuban Chowk to Netaji Subhash Marg Kashmeri Gate, heavy traffic was reported for hours. Several other areas, including Nehru Place, Aurobindo Marg, Kailash Colony, Lajpat Nagar, Siri Fort Road, Chirag Dilli flyover, Outer Ring Road, GK Marg, Rail Bhawan, Akshardham, Ashram, also reported severe waterlogging and traffic disruptions. Thousands of people working in Gurugram worked from home following a Government advisory to corporate offices and private institutions on Thursday, a day after torrential rain saw led to massive waterlogging in the high-rise city that was brought to its knees.
So far, Delhi has received 16.67 millimetres of rainfall. Safdarjung recorded just 1.4 mm of rainfall between 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., several other parts of National Capital also recieved heavy downpour. Najafgarh received the highest at 60 mm rain, followed by Ayanagar (50.5 mm), Pragati Maidan (37 mm), Pusa (30 mm), and North Campus (22 mm).
The Opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was quick to take a dig at PWD Minister Parvesh Verma’s tall claim, sharing a video of the submerged road. AAP Delhi President Saurabh Bharadwaj took to X and slammed the BJP for its repeated failure to tackle flooding, even with all four ‘engines’ in power. Sharing photos of waterlogging in Lutyens’ Delhi, Bharadwaj said, “This is Lutyens’ Delhi. Just an hour of rain, and this is the state of the road near the official residence of PWD, Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Parvesh Verma.” Calling out the BJP’s failed promises, Bharadwaj stated, “BJP’s Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, PWD Minister Parvesh Verma, and other ministers and leaders made tall claims that Delhi won’t drown this year. They said all necessary preparations had been made to prevent waterlogging. If everything was in place, then why did Delhi flood after just one hour of rain?”
The city struggled to drain excess water and manage vehicular flow. The Shadipur area saw a bumper-to-bumper jam till late afternoon, with motorists reporting delays of up to an hour. Traffic from Nangloi towards Najafgarh and vice versa came to a standstill.
The Delhi Traffic Police in a post on X informed the public that traffic was affected on both carriageways from Nangloi towards Mundka and vice versa on the Rohtak Road due to waterlogging, potholes, and road/sewer repairing by the Public Works Department. Near Dhaula Kuan, Rajokri and Mahipalpur, vehicles were seen crawling for kilometres. A particularly troubling point was the Zakhira Railway Underpass on Road No 40, where severe waterlogging led to diversions. “Traffic from Shastri Nagar-KD Chowk is diverted towards Chaudhary Nahar Singh Marg and vice versa,” the traffic police wrote on X in a post.
“People are stuck for over 30 minutes just to cross a kilometre stretch,” posted a commuter caught in the Zakhira jam. “The situation is extremely bad.” Parts of south Delhi, including Sarai Kale Khan, the road leading to the AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital and the Ashram area, too, saw intractable snarls. In Patparganj, a user wrote, “Due to the rain, many people are still stuck in traffic jams. In several places, vehicles are struggling to move forward.” Commuters from Shalimar Bagh and Shahdara shared similar woes. “Please have a look. We are stuck, and no one seems to be taking note,” one user wrote, tagging the Delhi Traffic Police’s handle.
The situation in nearby Gurugram was no better. Thousands of people working in Gurugram worked from home following a Government advisory to corporate offices and private institutions on Thursday, a day after torrential rain saw led to massive waterlogging in the high-rise city that was brought to its knees.
A truck loaded with beer bottles that fell into a road which had caved in was testimony to the rain havoc. The incident occurred at the Southern Peripheral Road when the truck, filled with liquor bottles, overturned and fell into the crater. No one was hurt in the incident and a crane was used to pull the truck out, a senior traffic police official said. Several private schools conducted online classes while some Government schools cancelled classes for the day.
The rains that started at about 7 pm on Wednesday and continued late into the night led to jams that lasted till the early hours of Thursday. According to the advisory issued by the District Disaster Management Authority, Gurugram recorded 133 mm of rainfall in the 12-hour period that ended at 7 am on Thursday. This included an “extremely intense spell” of 103 mm of rainfall between 7.30 pm to 9 pm on Wednesday. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an ‘orange’ alert for Gurugram, the advisory stated. “In view of the above situation, all corporate offices and private institutions in the district are advised to guide their employees to work from home on July 10 so that traffic congestion can be avoided,” it said.
Rain brought Gurugram to a standstill on Wednesday evening, with roads and several residential areas inundated and traffic gridlocked. The downpour left the Narsinghpur stretch of the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway and places near Basai and Golf Course Extension Road submerged. The road in front of the parking lot near Rajiv Chowk, Sheetla Mata road, Sadar Bazaar, Bus Adda road and roads in nearby colonies were also flooded. Waterlogging was also reported from Basai Chowk, Khandsa, Sanjay Gram Road, Sohna Road, Subhash Chowk and Sectors 30, 31, 40, 45, 47, 51, 22, 23, 4, 5, 12, 13 and 48. There was a 7 to 8-km-long queue of vehicles on National Highway 48 from Narsinghpur to Rajokri in Delhi on Wednesday night. About 2.5 feet of water accumulated at Subhash Chowk and people were stuck in a jam till 2 am.
Some people took to social media to highlight the condition of roads and called for action against officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG). In a post on X, the MCG said, “Required machinery is operational to ensure discharge of storm water. Drains are running at full capacity due to high rainfall.”
Gurugram traffic police warned commuters about slow traffic on Thursday morning. “Waterlogging has been reported at many places across Gurugram due to heavy rain since last night. Traffic jams with movement disruption may take more than usual time to commute,” it said in a post on X.