Delhi recorded season’s highest rainfall on Tuesday, as weather department predicted moderate to heavy rain till the end of this month. However, the downpour brought with it woes of water logging and traffic jams, affecting thousands of people in the city.
'In the last 24 hours, ending at 8.30 am, Delhi received 54.5 mm rainfall, which is the highest for this season. More showers are predicted in next seven days,' said a senior official of the Delhi Meteorological Department. Another 28.2 mm of rainfall was recorded between 8.30 am to 5.30 pm.
The weather department predicts the maximum temperature to hover around 30 degree Celsius and minimum to be between 24 and 25 degree Celsius for the week. It will rain in the city throughout the week and the weather will see 'thunderstorm with rain' till Sunday, the department said.
In the coming days, the city is likely to make up for the deficit in rains received in the earlier part of the season. 'We hope that the city will now almost receive its share of rains and the deficit of 47 per cent will be completed in the next week,' added the official.
The city has received 244.4 mm of rainfall since the onset of monsoon this June-end, which is 47 per cent deficient. The rains considerably brought down the temperature, with maximum and minimum temperatures remaining well below normal levels. The maximum was recorded at 29.4 degree Celsius, which is four degrees below normal, while the minimum was 24.8, one degree below normal.
Rains that began last night continued through the day in several parts of the capital, resulting in waterlogging in many areas and traffic jams during the peak hours. Traffic jams were reported from major intersections like ITO, Laxmi Nagar, Ring Road, Dwaraka and Mathura Road, giving a harrowing time to commuters. Traffic was affected on the Ring Road due to water logging at the end of Bhishma Pitamah Marg flyover and Pragati Vihar Hostel.
SEASON’S HEAVIEST SHOWER LOWERS TEMP BY 4 NOTCHES
Heavy downpour in the city on Tuesday morning brought down the maximum temperature by four degrees but caused major traffic snarls in various parts of the city, due to waterlogging in areas such as Parliament Street, Ring Road, ITO, Aurobindo Marg, Laxmi Nagar, Moti Bagh, Badarpur, Ashram Chowk, Saket, MG Road, Azadpur and Kashmere Gate in north Delhi.
‘There was slow traffic movement at Mori Gate, Dhaula Kuan and Masjid Moth areas’, said a traffic police official.
Waterlogging was also reported from Mahipalpur village because of which traffic coming from Gurgaon and moving towards Vasant Kunj was severely affected. ‘The Delhi traffic police control room received complaints of slow movement of traffic from Bulward Road, Hakikat Nagar and various other areas in east and north Delhi’, he added.
‘I was supposed to go to Connaught Place from the Laxmi Nagar side. It took an hour to cross the ITO intersection on Tuesday, whereas it usually takes only 15 minutes’, said Gaurav Mishra, a commuter.
There was heavy flow of traffic at GTK Road, between Adarsh Nagar and Mukarba Chowk, and also on the Dwarka flyover to Domestic Airport due to heavy water logging near the Terminal 3 area, along with places such as Munirka, which are close to the Domestic Airport’, said joint commissioner of police, Delhi police, Satyendra Garg. Traffic policemen were seen at many intersections in the national capital manning the morning traffic due to waterlogging at different areas.
Delhi’s Ring Road, Ashram, Mathura Road, Connaught Place, ITO, Nehru Place, MG Road faced the worst traffic jams during peak of the day and also in the evening. The bus terminal in Sarai Kale Khan of Delhi Transport Corporation faced a harrowing time. Due to major waterlogging in the terminals, the buses were parked on the main road. ‘There was almost a three-km traffic jam at Ring Road due to heavy waterlogging. It took me around two-and-a-half hours to reach office in Karol Bagh, whereas it takes only half-an-hour on other days. My work was severely affected,’ said Rajiv Shukla, an office goer. Transport services were affected in most parts of the city causing severe inconvenience to thousands of commuters.
HC PANS CIVIC AGENCIES OVER WATERLOGGING
On a day Delhiites reeled under waterlogging woes due to heavy rains, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up civic agencies for not taking measures to desilt drains to prevent inconvenience to people during monsoon in the national capital.
The court also asked trifurcated MCD and NDMC to place on record the road maps relating to drainage system by next week. ‘Drains have to be cleaned. There are no short-term measures to stop waterlogging in the city. If you don’t know the number of drains in the area, how will you clean them?’ a division bench of justices SK Kaul and Vipin Sanghi asked after MCD failed to file the status report.
The civic body claimed that long-term plans were there as per the Masterplan 2021 to solve the problem.
‘Year after year the problem of waterlogging occurs. You cannot ask citizens to wait for implementation of your long- term plans,’ the bench said and asked the authorities to bring the records of road maps to court by 28 August.
The bench made the observations while hearing a plea by NGO Nyaya Bhoomi President B B Sharan to launch contempt proceedings against the civic body officials for their alleged failure in complying with the court’s 11 July order.
The high court had on 11 July directed officials to take steps to end the problem of waterlogging in the capital in 15 days.
The court’s directions had come while hearing two PILs, filed by the NGO and Gaurav Bansal, a lawyer, seeking steps to address the problem of waterlogging in the capital. One of the petitions had claimed MCD and Public Works Department (PWD) have done nothing significant after 1998 to properly desilt drains and this was causing waterlogging on major roads even after the slightest of rain. Giving a list of 41 waterlogging-prone areas here, the petition referred to a response received under an RTI, and said affected areas included Ashram Chowk, South Extension Part-I, Mathura Road, ISBT Kashmere Gate, RTR Marg near Moti Bagh flyover, Siri Fort Road, Dhaula Kuan underpass and underpasses around Dwarka. Meanwhile, heavy downpour led to many office goers were stuck at several places for hours. Several places in the city were waterlogged for hours forcing the commuters to wade through water. ‘We were stuck in the jam for around one hour but nobody was here to help us out,’ said one Alok Kumar, who was stuck near Laxmi Nagar.
'In the last 24 hours, ending at 8.30 am, Delhi received 54.5 mm rainfall, which is the highest for this season. More showers are predicted in next seven days,' said a senior official of the Delhi Meteorological Department. Another 28.2 mm of rainfall was recorded between 8.30 am to 5.30 pm.
The weather department predicts the maximum temperature to hover around 30 degree Celsius and minimum to be between 24 and 25 degree Celsius for the week. It will rain in the city throughout the week and the weather will see 'thunderstorm with rain' till Sunday, the department said.
In the coming days, the city is likely to make up for the deficit in rains received in the earlier part of the season. 'We hope that the city will now almost receive its share of rains and the deficit of 47 per cent will be completed in the next week,' added the official.
The city has received 244.4 mm of rainfall since the onset of monsoon this June-end, which is 47 per cent deficient. The rains considerably brought down the temperature, with maximum and minimum temperatures remaining well below normal levels. The maximum was recorded at 29.4 degree Celsius, which is four degrees below normal, while the minimum was 24.8, one degree below normal.
Rains that began last night continued through the day in several parts of the capital, resulting in waterlogging in many areas and traffic jams during the peak hours. Traffic jams were reported from major intersections like ITO, Laxmi Nagar, Ring Road, Dwaraka and Mathura Road, giving a harrowing time to commuters. Traffic was affected on the Ring Road due to water logging at the end of Bhishma Pitamah Marg flyover and Pragati Vihar Hostel.
SEASON’S HEAVIEST SHOWER LOWERS TEMP BY 4 NOTCHES
Heavy downpour in the city on Tuesday morning brought down the maximum temperature by four degrees but caused major traffic snarls in various parts of the city, due to waterlogging in areas such as Parliament Street, Ring Road, ITO, Aurobindo Marg, Laxmi Nagar, Moti Bagh, Badarpur, Ashram Chowk, Saket, MG Road, Azadpur and Kashmere Gate in north Delhi.
‘There was slow traffic movement at Mori Gate, Dhaula Kuan and Masjid Moth areas’, said a traffic police official.
Waterlogging was also reported from Mahipalpur village because of which traffic coming from Gurgaon and moving towards Vasant Kunj was severely affected. ‘The Delhi traffic police control room received complaints of slow movement of traffic from Bulward Road, Hakikat Nagar and various other areas in east and north Delhi’, he added.
‘I was supposed to go to Connaught Place from the Laxmi Nagar side. It took an hour to cross the ITO intersection on Tuesday, whereas it usually takes only 15 minutes’, said Gaurav Mishra, a commuter.
There was heavy flow of traffic at GTK Road, between Adarsh Nagar and Mukarba Chowk, and also on the Dwarka flyover to Domestic Airport due to heavy water logging near the Terminal 3 area, along with places such as Munirka, which are close to the Domestic Airport’, said joint commissioner of police, Delhi police, Satyendra Garg. Traffic policemen were seen at many intersections in the national capital manning the morning traffic due to waterlogging at different areas.
Delhi’s Ring Road, Ashram, Mathura Road, Connaught Place, ITO, Nehru Place, MG Road faced the worst traffic jams during peak of the day and also in the evening. The bus terminal in Sarai Kale Khan of Delhi Transport Corporation faced a harrowing time. Due to major waterlogging in the terminals, the buses were parked on the main road. ‘There was almost a three-km traffic jam at Ring Road due to heavy waterlogging. It took me around two-and-a-half hours to reach office in Karol Bagh, whereas it takes only half-an-hour on other days. My work was severely affected,’ said Rajiv Shukla, an office goer. Transport services were affected in most parts of the city causing severe inconvenience to thousands of commuters.
HC PANS CIVIC AGENCIES OVER WATERLOGGING
On a day Delhiites reeled under waterlogging woes due to heavy rains, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up civic agencies for not taking measures to desilt drains to prevent inconvenience to people during monsoon in the national capital.
The court also asked trifurcated MCD and NDMC to place on record the road maps relating to drainage system by next week. ‘Drains have to be cleaned. There are no short-term measures to stop waterlogging in the city. If you don’t know the number of drains in the area, how will you clean them?’ a division bench of justices SK Kaul and Vipin Sanghi asked after MCD failed to file the status report.
The civic body claimed that long-term plans were there as per the Masterplan 2021 to solve the problem.
‘Year after year the problem of waterlogging occurs. You cannot ask citizens to wait for implementation of your long- term plans,’ the bench said and asked the authorities to bring the records of road maps to court by 28 August.
The bench made the observations while hearing a plea by NGO Nyaya Bhoomi President B B Sharan to launch contempt proceedings against the civic body officials for their alleged failure in complying with the court’s 11 July order.
The high court had on 11 July directed officials to take steps to end the problem of waterlogging in the capital in 15 days.
The court’s directions had come while hearing two PILs, filed by the NGO and Gaurav Bansal, a lawyer, seeking steps to address the problem of waterlogging in the capital. One of the petitions had claimed MCD and Public Works Department (PWD) have done nothing significant after 1998 to properly desilt drains and this was causing waterlogging on major roads even after the slightest of rain. Giving a list of 41 waterlogging-prone areas here, the petition referred to a response received under an RTI, and said affected areas included Ashram Chowk, South Extension Part-I, Mathura Road, ISBT Kashmere Gate, RTR Marg near Moti Bagh flyover, Siri Fort Road, Dhaula Kuan underpass and underpasses around Dwarka. Meanwhile, heavy downpour led to many office goers were stuck at several places for hours. Several places in the city were waterlogged for hours forcing the commuters to wade through water. ‘We were stuck in the jam for around one hour but nobody was here to help us out,’ said one Alok Kumar, who was stuck near Laxmi Nagar.