Mayhem on the streets as first spell of heavy rains hits Capital
new delhi: With the first heavy showers in Delhi amid the pandemic, lack of preparedness and the unexpected fury of the clouds caused multiple deaths in the city, displaced many jhuggis and unauthorised settlements and led to major traffic snarls across the Capital as some areas reported trees falling and even roads caving in. The Indian Meteorological Department figures from Sunday's rainfall showed that the overall July rainfall had already been pushed to the surplus category. With low-lying areas inundated, several stretches where construction work is going on also reported waterlogging.
According to Delhi Traffic Police, South Avenue Road, Vinay Marg, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg under Railways bridge, Dhaula Kuan, GDR-PDR road, New Delhi Railway Station, Minto Road, Guru Nanak Chowk, Azad Market railway bridge, Moolchand Underpass, Central School L L Rai Marg, Modi Mill, Pul Prahladpur, Prembadi underpass were affected due to waterlogging in the morning.
"WHO building located at ring road near IP depot is under construction by NBCC. Today at about 8.30 am one bank of drain passing near WHO broke and some jhuggis also collapsed in that water current and water kept flowing towards Ring Road and nearby areas of Vikas Bhawan including IP Marg. Traffic was diverted towards Vikas Marg and Bhairon road," Delhi Police said. According to one official, traffic on IP Marg remained heavy and traffic coming from Laxmi Nagar was diverted towards Rajaram Kohli Marg or Akshardham.
Officials added that the PWD and SDMC engineers were trying to clear the water with the help of pumps and suction machines. Till then traffic on Saleemgarh coming from ISBT was diverted at Rajaram Kohli Marg towards Pushta road and then towards NH 24. At 11 places in Delhi, traffic was affected due to trees falling whereas in two to three places there were reports of roads caving in.
As per the official, "Traffic had been diverted at Rajghat towards Delhi Gate side at gate number 23 towards Vikas Marg, at the loop on IP flyover to avoid the stretch between IP flyover and Bhairon road." The official said that as soon as water was cleared on Ring Road at IP marg, all diversions will be removed. Traffic has been opened in all the stretches but for Ring Road near IP flyover. According to the Delhi Police PCR, as many as 12 calls were received due to waterlogging.
The traffic police also issued an advisory asking bus and auto-rickshaw drivers to avoid wading through submerged roads as manholes could have been swept away or ditches could have flared up. Meanwhile, a DTC bus, two auto-rickshaws had flooded in Minto Bridge around 7.54 am. "We rescued the driver and conductor," a fire department official said. On Twitter, people also shared photographs of Minto Bridge of different years and one thing was common that the vehicles were submerged due to waterlogging.
Atul Garg, Director, Delhi Fire Services said that they received three major water logging calls in which they saved 10 people from ITO, Jakhira flyover and Lawrence Road flyover. Around 10 houses in the slum area of Anna Nagar in the national capital collapsed on Sunday. Video of the incident went viral in which people were seen shouting to leave their houses and within a few seconds shanties fell into the water. The DFS chief said that residents had already evacuated the shanties and several low-lying areas and road stretches where repair work was being done had flooded.
