new delhi: The second spell of heavy rainfall in four days submerged many areas in waist-deep water, brought traffic to a standstill in many parts and also led to two major roads caving in, including a part of Ashoka Road in Lutyens Delhi on Wednesday.
As for the Ashoka Road caving in, the New Delhi Municipal Council, under whose jurisdiction Lutyens Delhi is in, issued a statement, blaming a burst in the sewer lines for the incident. It said, "Today a small portion of Ashoka Road caved in due to leakage in the sewer line. The area around it has been cordoned off. The engineering team of NDMC is already working on-site round the clock to repair the sewer line and road on an utmost priority basis."
Later, the Mahipalpur bypass road also caved in. The traffic police came up with another statement, "Mahipalpur bypass Road caved in approx. 25 meter long near the NCRB office. Service lane to NH 8 near NCRB office towards Vasant Kunj and Mahipalpur is affected. Traffic on this service lane going towards Vasant Kunj is stopped from NCRB point. Traffic is being diverted from Mahipalpur red light towards Vasant Kunj. Both carriageways of Mahipalpur. The underpass is also stopped."
The Delhi Traffic Police in their statement about Ashoka Road said, "Road damaged near 10 Ashoka Road probably due to sinking of the stormwater drainage system. The extent of damage is around 10 feet long. Barricading done at Ashoka road at Windsor place and Andhra Bhawan. Traffic is not allowed on *stretch between Windsor place R/A to Jaswant Singh R/ A on Ashoka Road."
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the rains covered most parts of Delhi and the adjoining areas of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative figures for the city, recorded 67.6 mm rainfall till 2:30 pm. It has recorded 157.4 mm rainfall so far in July, 13 per cent more than the normal of 139.1 mm.
However, the rains also brought the mercury down significantly. At 27.5 degrees Celsius, Delhi recorded its lowest maximum temperature in July since 2015.
Waterlogging was also reported from various parts of Delhi which affected the traffic. Delhi Traffic Police took to Twitter to inform commuters about traffic updates. Traffic was affected from Zakhira to Inder Lok, Mundka to Nangloi Chowk(both carriageways), Dhansa Road Khaira More,
Jamrud Pur to Moolchand near Central School and in a host of other areas due to waterlogging.
Meanwhile, in adjoining Gurugram, public agencies faced the wrath of residents yet again over a lack of monsoon preparedness. Authorities had to ultimately use JCB earthmovers in areas like IFFCO Chowk, MG Road, Shankar Chowk Narsingh and Sukhrali to remove water.
There was heavy deployment of the Gurugram traffic police officials at various busy routes to ensure that the flow of traffic was not disrupted. More than 100 of its officials were deployed across 39 locations to aid commuters.