Another road caves in - this time under IIT flyover, traffic hit

New Delhi: A portion of a road under IIT-Delhi flyover caved in following heavy rains in the national capital in the last few days, affecting traffic in the area on Saturday, officials said even as early morning rains here caused continued disruption in traffic in many parts.

Taking to Twitter, the Delhi Traffic Police asked commuters to take an alternate route.

"Traffic going from Adhchini to IIT has been diverted from Adhchini to Katwaria Sarai after a portion of a road near IIT red light (traffic signal) caved in," the Traffic Police tweeted in Hindi. The Public Works Department said the portion of the road caved in because of the leakage in an underground Delhi Jal Board (DJB) line.

"Our engineers are on the spot and are fixing the road. The road caved-in because of an underground DJB line which is leaking. The leaking line eroded the road leading to cave-in. It is being attended on priority," PWD Engineer-in-Chief Shashi Kant said.

Significantly, this is not the first road cave-in of the season. Three times so far at least, different portions of roads in the Capital have caved in - corresponding to rains in the area at the time. For instance, the first heavy showers in the Capital earlier this month had resulted in a large chunk of a key road in Dwarka caving in and swallowing a car whole. Officials had soon managed to rescue the people trapped. Even after this, another road cave-in was reported earlier this month.

The city received an average of 43.6 mm rain till 8.30 am on Saturday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which added that moderate rains are expected later in the day. However, most of Saturday was dry in Delhi, with temperatures even slightly rising after a week of pleasant mercury levels.

The IMD on Friday had issued an orange alert, predicting moderate rain for Saturday and warning of possible waterlogging in low-lying areas of the national capital and major traffic disruptions. Several areas have been seeing regular waterlogging for the last week, with underpasses at Pul Prahladpur being shut due to this many times.

The department has issued a yellow alert for Sunday, and an orange alert again for Monday - warning of waterlogging yet again.

The mercury in the national capital settled at 34.4 degrees Celsius on Saturday and received an average of 43.6 mm of rain till the morning, the weather department said. The relative humidity was recorded at 68 per cent. The mercury had risen by a few notches in the national capital in the morning, with the minimum temperature settling at 28.2 degrees Celsius.

The city received an average of 43.6 mm of rainfall till 8:30 am. The relative humidity in the morning was recorded at a high of 93 per cent, according to the India Meteorological Department.

The IMD uses four colour codes -- Green means all is well and yellow indicates severely bad weather.