Delhi airport flooded after heavy showers
New Delhi: Record heavy rains lashed many parts of the national Capital on Saturday, making it the wettest monsoon season in 46 years and causing extensive waterlogging that affected operations at the Delhi airport, disrupted traffic on key roads and left passengers trapped in vehicles in flooded underpasses.
Delhiites woke up to the sound of thunder and lightning on Saturday morning and, according to the weather department, the city recorded 117.9 mm rainfall from 5:30 am to 2.30 pm.
It had recorded more than 100 mm of rainfall on two consecutive days at the start of the month — 112.1 mm on September 1 and 117.7 mm on September 2.
As many as 262 waterlogging complaints were received by the Public Works Department and civic agencies till Saturday afternoon (1.30 pm), a recurring problem in the city during the monsoon.
An old building in Delhi's Narela area, which was declared a dangerous structure by civic authorities, collapsed. However, no one was injured in the incident, officials said.
As the forecourt of the Delhi airport was also waterlogged, three flights were cancelled and five diverted to Jaipur and Ahmedabad.
Images shared on social media, purportedly of the area, showed submerged cars and the people wading through the water to reach the entry gate of the airport.
Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that he spoke to airport officials and "was told that the waterlogged forecourt was cleared up within 30 minutes".
The Aerocity area — which houses multiple luxury hotels — near the airport was also waterlogged in the morning with people trying to manoeuvre their cars through the accumulated water, showed another set of videos.
The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said the waterlogging at the forecourt was "for a short period" and operations have been back to normal since 9 am.
Sources said four domestic flights — two of SpiceJet and one each of IndiGo and Go First — were diverted to Jaipur. One international flight — Emirates flight from Dubai to Delhi — was diverted to Ahmedabad, the sources mentioned.
They also said three IndiGo flights that were scheduled to depart from Delhi were cancelled due to bad weather.
A highly unusual monsoon season this year has yielded 1,100 mm of rainfall in Delhi so far, the highest in 46 years, and almost double the precipitation recorded last year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Saturday.
"The Safdarjung Observatory, which is considered the official marker for the city, had gauged 1,150 mm of rainfall in the 1975 monsoon season. This year, the precipitation has already hit the 1,100-mm mark and the season has not ended yet," an IMD official said.
Normally, Delhi records 648.9 mm of rainfall during the monsoon season, according to the IMD. Between June 1, when the monsoon season starts, and September 11, the city normally gets 590.2 mm of rainfall. The monsoon withdraws from Delhi by September 25.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had last month chaired a meeting on the city's drainage plan and said the national Capital's drainage system will be improved and made world-class and Delhi will get rid of waterlogging.
He had said that necessary changes as suggested by IIT Delhi will be made to bolster the city's drainage system and make it foolproof.
Taking a dig at Chief Minister Kejriwal, Delhi BJP leader and national secretary of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha Tejinder Bagga shared a video of himself on a rafting boat in a waterlogged street in Bhajanpura area of northeast Delhi.
