Saturday's downpour rendered the national Capital in a total mess exposing credibility of the civic agencies. If the unending traffic snarls were not enough, Delhiites had to juggle with a series of other issues like power cuts, Metro disruptions, roads caving in, uprooting of tress and walls crumbling down. Utter chaos on roads caused by waterlogging is clearly an instance of collective failure of civic agencies, which keep blaming each other for such a mess.
Recently, the Public Works Department and Municipal Corporations announced their preparedness and arrangements to meet any eventuality. However, mayhem in the city on Saturday exposed their tall claims.
Those who avoided roads and took the Metro, had to suffer due to the rain as well. Malviya Nagar and Saket Metro stations were closed for nearly five hours from 2:30 pm to 6 pm after rain water reached its concourse level. Similar was the case for Khan Market Metro station on the violet line, where people were stranded inside the building as water gushed inside the station. However, its services were not shut. Metros in the same Badarpur to Central Secretariat Metro line were running late by 25 minutes. "Malviya nagar Metro station was closed for hours," a Delhi Metro spokesperson said.
The torrential rain which lashed the national Capital also led to a wall falling apart in South Delhi's Jamia Nagar, due to which two cars were damaged. "The wall had cracks from before and its top edges were chipping off," said Jagtaap Rai, owner of a grocery shop opposite the wall.
In another incident, an electricity pole toppled down at Inderlok Ring Road damaging four cars that were parked right under it. Trees in some parts of the city were uprooted due to heavy rainfall. Apart from this, power supply in several areas was disrupted for many hours.
RK Ashram Marg's road caved in causing many to backtrack and take alternate routes, which in turn resulted in major traffic jam. "Such is the state of our city, with huge craters forming in between the rods just within a few hours of rainfall. God knows what material the road constructing agencies use and where does all the crores of rupees collected from us go," said an agitated motorist.
Many vehicles broke down in the middle of jams further hampering the traffic and adding to the earnings of mechanics in the city. Meanwhile, several low-lying areas of the city were inundated while in some parts, rainwater flooded basements of flats.