Waterlogging, traffic snarls after rains

New Delhi: Many parts of the national capital, including a portion of the newly-redeveloped Chandni Chowk, witnessed waterlogging and heavy traffic snarls following rainfall on Wednesday. According to the Public Works Department (PWD), traffic police and municipal authorities, at least 149 complaints of water accumulation on streets and low-lying areas were reported on Wednesday. Municipal officials said that five incidents of tree felling were reported on Wednesday.

Prominent areas where streets were inundated include the Ring Road near WHO building, near Pragati Maidan, portion of newly redeveloped Chandni Chowk, Vikas Marg near DDA building, Kamla Market, Rohini, Sadar Bazar, Malviya Nagar, ITO, Okhla, Janak Puri, Rohtak Road, Nabi Karim, Shastri Nagar, Keshav Puram, Rajan Babu Road in Civil Lines, Bhajanpura, Swami Dayanand Marg Shahdara, Pul Prahladpur on Mehrauli-Badarpur road, Azadpur underpass, among others.

A purported video was circulated on social media on Wednesday afternoon where ankle-deep water is visibly flowing on the main Chandni Chowk street near Jain Mandir and people are seen wading through the inundated stretch.

PWD officials said that the intensity of the rain was "very high" due to which water accumulated briefly on the newly-redeveloped Chandni Chowk stretch near Jain Mandir.

"The water was cleared within 10 minutes. Normally, we call it waterlogging if water stays for more than 30 minutes after rains stop. This should not be called waterlogging," a PWD official said.

The showers inundated major roads and low-lying residential areas and caused traffic snarls in parts of the city. The waterlogging in Shahdara was such that the traffic police had to restrict vehicular movement on Swami Dayanand Marg.

One commuter posted a video on social media tagging Delhi Police. "For your kind information... Ambulances are stuck daily in such traffic jams... Requesting you to make some mechanism to deal with such incidences... Location: Barapullah flyover, Kidwayi Nagar," the commuter said.

Light to moderate rainfall is expected in Delhi over the next six days, India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said.