Monsoon ushers in traffic jams
7 July 2012 3:12 AM GMT
Delhi residents finally heaved a sigh of relief on Friday as pre-monsoon showers lashed several parts of the city, which brought down the mercury level. The weather office has forecast more rains on Saturday as the monsoon finally keeps its date with the capital.
Stormy weather brought the traffic to a standstill in some areas while children could be seen frolicking in the first showers. Several Delhi residents thronged to India Gate to savor the weather.
‘It has been a long wait this year. We plan on staying out throughout the evening and enjoy the rain,’ said Aryan, a high school student. The pleasant weather is here to stay, as the met office has forecast more rains over the weekend.
‘Saturday will see cloudy skies and more thundershowers can be expected. The maximum and minimum temperature are expected to be around 36 and 26 degrees Celsius,’ an official at the India Meteorological Department said.
The complaints of water logging were received from Balmiki Mohilla, Azadpur Village and Near Community Hall, Rana Partap Bagh falling in the Civil Line Zone of the NDMC. Only one complaint of fallen tree was received, which created a problem at Sangam Park, Rana Partap Bagh, near under-pass. There have been several road blocks due to water logging in some important roads like M G Road, Mandi House road, where Metro construction is taking place.
There were also complains of falling of a boundary wall at B-27, Gali No. 3, Raj Extension, Gandhi Nagar falling in the Shahdara South Zone of EDMC where no death has taken place.
Delhi had been reeling under intense heat as monsoon, which generally arrives in the capital on 29 June, missed the date.
The scorching heat forced the summer vacations in Delhi government schools to be extended by a week till 9 July. Some private schools followed suit.
The day’s maximum temperature went below 40 degrees to 38.4 degrees Celsius, two notches above average while the minimum temperature was a notch above average at 29.1 degrees Celsius. The day’s maximum and minimum humidity readings were 69 and 50 per cent respectively.
Thursday’s maximum temperature was five notches above average at 41.1 degrees Celsius and the minimum was two notches above at 29.5 degrees Celsius.
ARE DELHI AGENCIES READY FOR THE CHALLENGE?
When the eagerly awaited monsoon showers, bringing respite from the sweltering summer heat, finally arrive in Delhi, the city will once again and as usual witness flooded roads, overflowing sewers, traffic snarls as the civic agencies seem to be lagging behind schedule in de-silting and sanitation work.
‘With pre-monsoon showers already arriving in Delhi and the monsoon rains about to reach the capital anytime, only 40 per cent of de-silting work has been completed so far,’ said Mukesh Goel, Leader of Opposition in the newly-formed North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC).
‘The work is lagging behind because of the labour shortage and lack of machinery. Like every monsoon, Delhiites should be geared to walk in knee-deep dirty water this monsoon too,’ he said.
The responsibility for maintaining major roads lies with the state Public Works Department (PWD), and the North, East and South municipal corporations of Delhi comparatively have few streets and drains to maintain. Yet the civic agencies are behind schedule in cleaning up the storm-water drains.
The three civic bodies missed the 15 June and 30 June deadlines set by Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit to de-silt the storm water drains to avoid water-logging, floods and damaged roads, and are yet to complete the de-silting of storm-water drains in their areas.
The South corporation has 1,464 drains to clean, while the North has 1,638 and the East corporation over 1,000 drains.
In a recent pre-monsoon survey, the corporations found that the city has 88 vulnerable water stagnation points. Fifty-two of these are located in the North.
According to the North corporation, a major part of de-silting of drains was to be done by the PWD and Irrigation and Flood Control Department.
‘Even as the light pre-monsoon showers Friday brought a relief to Delhiites, we are not yet prepared for the actual monsoon rains. Blocked drains, flooded roads and road collapses can be encountered by the residents, as the PWD and Flood Control Department have not properly de-silted the big drains, falling under their jurisdiction,’ Mahender Nagpal, Leader of the House, North MCD, said.
During an inspection Wednesday, the areas under the jurisdiction of the PWD and Flood Control Department, were found to have uncleaned drains, and the silt not removed. Due to this, drains will back-flow, he added.
Meanwhile, the Public Works Department [PWD] claims to have cleaned 90 percent of the storm-water drains.
POWER SITUATION EASES A BIT IN CAPITAL
With the capital receiving pre- monsoon showers and weather becoming much tolerable, power situation eased a bit on Friday though outages were reported from some parts of the city.
A day after recording an all-time high for power demand of 5,462 MW yesterday, the demand for electricity peaked only to 5,236 MW during the day. This demand for power was recorded at 3.04 pm.
Though the demand was less compared to yesterday, the city could not meet a demand for 307 MW due to non- availability of electricity, leading to power cut in some areas of the capital.
A Delhi Transco statement said the underdrawal of power was 307 MW till 2 pm.
‘Total demand in Delhi in 24 hours, from midnight of 4 July till midnight of 5 July was 105.590 million units, of which 104.757 million units was successfully met and 0.785 million units shed due to transmission and distribution constraints and 0.048 million units was shed to restrict overdrawal at low frequency,’ it said.
A power department official said pre-monsoon showers and a tolerable weather resulted in less demand of power.
‘The situation is a bit relaxed today. But if the weather does not improve considerably, then the situation will worsen,’ the official said.
During the last decade the demand of power has increased very rapidly. The demand of power in July 2002 was 3,097 MW while last year, the highest demand was recorded 5028 MW on 2 August.
Stormy weather brought the traffic to a standstill in some areas while children could be seen frolicking in the first showers. Several Delhi residents thronged to India Gate to savor the weather.
‘It has been a long wait this year. We plan on staying out throughout the evening and enjoy the rain,’ said Aryan, a high school student. The pleasant weather is here to stay, as the met office has forecast more rains over the weekend.
‘Saturday will see cloudy skies and more thundershowers can be expected. The maximum and minimum temperature are expected to be around 36 and 26 degrees Celsius,’ an official at the India Meteorological Department said.
The complaints of water logging were received from Balmiki Mohilla, Azadpur Village and Near Community Hall, Rana Partap Bagh falling in the Civil Line Zone of the NDMC. Only one complaint of fallen tree was received, which created a problem at Sangam Park, Rana Partap Bagh, near under-pass. There have been several road blocks due to water logging in some important roads like M G Road, Mandi House road, where Metro construction is taking place.
There were also complains of falling of a boundary wall at B-27, Gali No. 3, Raj Extension, Gandhi Nagar falling in the Shahdara South Zone of EDMC where no death has taken place.
Delhi had been reeling under intense heat as monsoon, which generally arrives in the capital on 29 June, missed the date.
The scorching heat forced the summer vacations in Delhi government schools to be extended by a week till 9 July. Some private schools followed suit.
The day’s maximum temperature went below 40 degrees to 38.4 degrees Celsius, two notches above average while the minimum temperature was a notch above average at 29.1 degrees Celsius. The day’s maximum and minimum humidity readings were 69 and 50 per cent respectively.
Thursday’s maximum temperature was five notches above average at 41.1 degrees Celsius and the minimum was two notches above at 29.5 degrees Celsius.
ARE DELHI AGENCIES READY FOR THE CHALLENGE?
When the eagerly awaited monsoon showers, bringing respite from the sweltering summer heat, finally arrive in Delhi, the city will once again and as usual witness flooded roads, overflowing sewers, traffic snarls as the civic agencies seem to be lagging behind schedule in de-silting and sanitation work.
‘With pre-monsoon showers already arriving in Delhi and the monsoon rains about to reach the capital anytime, only 40 per cent of de-silting work has been completed so far,’ said Mukesh Goel, Leader of Opposition in the newly-formed North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC).
‘The work is lagging behind because of the labour shortage and lack of machinery. Like every monsoon, Delhiites should be geared to walk in knee-deep dirty water this monsoon too,’ he said.
The responsibility for maintaining major roads lies with the state Public Works Department (PWD), and the North, East and South municipal corporations of Delhi comparatively have few streets and drains to maintain. Yet the civic agencies are behind schedule in cleaning up the storm-water drains.
The three civic bodies missed the 15 June and 30 June deadlines set by Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit to de-silt the storm water drains to avoid water-logging, floods and damaged roads, and are yet to complete the de-silting of storm-water drains in their areas.
The South corporation has 1,464 drains to clean, while the North has 1,638 and the East corporation over 1,000 drains.
In a recent pre-monsoon survey, the corporations found that the city has 88 vulnerable water stagnation points. Fifty-two of these are located in the North.
According to the North corporation, a major part of de-silting of drains was to be done by the PWD and Irrigation and Flood Control Department.
‘Even as the light pre-monsoon showers Friday brought a relief to Delhiites, we are not yet prepared for the actual monsoon rains. Blocked drains, flooded roads and road collapses can be encountered by the residents, as the PWD and Flood Control Department have not properly de-silted the big drains, falling under their jurisdiction,’ Mahender Nagpal, Leader of the House, North MCD, said.
During an inspection Wednesday, the areas under the jurisdiction of the PWD and Flood Control Department, were found to have uncleaned drains, and the silt not removed. Due to this, drains will back-flow, he added.
Meanwhile, the Public Works Department [PWD] claims to have cleaned 90 percent of the storm-water drains.
POWER SITUATION EASES A BIT IN CAPITAL
With the capital receiving pre- monsoon showers and weather becoming much tolerable, power situation eased a bit on Friday though outages were reported from some parts of the city.
A day after recording an all-time high for power demand of 5,462 MW yesterday, the demand for electricity peaked only to 5,236 MW during the day. This demand for power was recorded at 3.04 pm.
Though the demand was less compared to yesterday, the city could not meet a demand for 307 MW due to non- availability of electricity, leading to power cut in some areas of the capital.
A Delhi Transco statement said the underdrawal of power was 307 MW till 2 pm.
‘Total demand in Delhi in 24 hours, from midnight of 4 July till midnight of 5 July was 105.590 million units, of which 104.757 million units was successfully met and 0.785 million units shed due to transmission and distribution constraints and 0.048 million units was shed to restrict overdrawal at low frequency,’ it said.
A power department official said pre-monsoon showers and a tolerable weather resulted in less demand of power.
‘The situation is a bit relaxed today. But if the weather does not improve considerably, then the situation will worsen,’ the official said.
During the last decade the demand of power has increased very rapidly. The demand of power in July 2002 was 3,097 MW while last year, the highest demand was recorded 5028 MW on 2 August.
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