A fresh spell of monsoon rain on Thursday morning brought both cheers and pain for Delhiites. If the rain brought some respite from the scorching heat with the minimum temperature settling two notches below the season’s average at 25.2 degrees Celsius as humidity was recorded at 92 per cent at 8.30 am, it also led to massive waterlogging on the city roads, leading to gridlocks in several parts of the Capital
The worst hit areas were South and East Delhi where colony roads were submerged in knee-deep water. “Due to heavy morning shower I reached office almost two hours late. The weather has been playing a spoilsport off late,” said Anoop Narang, a resident of Mehrauli.
Pragati Maidan, Mandi House, Barapullah flyover and Vikas Marg witnessed worst traffic snarls as commuters remained stuck for several hours during rush hours.
According to Delhi Traffic Police, huge traffic snarls were witnessed at Barapullah flyover, Naraina’s loha Mandi and Mehrauli to Badarpur road. Dhaula Kuan, NH-8, Delhi cantonment, Mahipalpur-Badarpur road, Ring Road, IIT-flyover, South extension and Ashram crossing in south Delhi were badly hit. Traffic at the entire BRT corridor stretch from Saket to lajpat Nagar remained clogged. Slow vehicular movement was witnessed at Green Park, Hauz Khas and INA area.
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Rain takes the heat off Delhi, turns up heat on traffic
Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander said, “In the first spell of monsoon rains, we identified 162 places across the Capital, where major traffic mess took place. A list of these places has been handed over to the civic agency. During Thursday’s monsoon rain, alert were issued to every district and traffic men were deployed at several points.”
Major gridlock across South Delhi area was caused after traffic signals broke down due to seepage of water in machines. The road underneath Mahipalpur flyover remained heavily affected along with Adchini T point, NH-8 to Mahipalpur route, Aurobindo Marg and IIT chowk witnessing traffic chaos.
Commuters at outer ring road remained stuck at peak hours in the morning with areas like ISBT Kashmere Gate, Rajnigandha chowk, Bhajanpura chowk remained stalled due to water logging.
According to data provided by MCD, Rohini’s Sector 16 and 18 and Sultanpur road witnessed heavy water logging. Roads were submerged in knee-deep water in Shastri Nagar, Narela’s Tikri Kalan Village and Karol Bagh’s East Patel Nagar, Partap Nagar and New Rohtak Road where heavy traffic jam was witnessed. Areas like Khajuri Khas and Karawal Nagar, Fazalpur road and IP Extension had flooded roads.
In East Delhi, roads leading to Preet Vihar were virtually chocked as traffic moved at a snail’s pace. The entire stretch from Jangpura to Mandi House remained chocked as traffic signals went offline. Roads were heavily jampacked in front of GTB hospital and ESI hospital as well. Palampur flyover to National Highway roads remained blocked with human traffic due to faulty services on flooded roads. Trees were uprooted in Pandav Nagar, Sunder Nagri and New Usman Pur.
The Safdarjung observatory, which is considered the official reading for the city, received 1.0 mm rainfall whereas areas under Palam, Ridge, Ayanagar and lodhi road recorded 56.8 mm, 17.6 mm, 48.2 mm and 1.0 mm rainfall till 8.30 am.