Roads waterlogged, traffic hit after record rains
New Delhi: Record rains lashed the national Capital on Saturday, crippling the traffic movement and causing heavy waterlogging in many parts of the city, with places like Minto Bridge, Rajghat, Connaught Place, and ITO being inundated after intense rains.
According to Delhi Police officials, a 60-year-old guard died on Saturday due to electric shock in east Delhi's Anand Vihar area allegedly due to waterlogging.
Public Works Department (PWD) officials said 316 complaints of waterlogging were received at the control room till 4.30 pm on Saturday. The officials said that the field staff was on the ground to address waterlogging complaints on priority basis.
Waterlogging also damaged medicines at a state-run hospital in Rohini as the rain water entered pharmacy of the hospital, an official said.
According to data from the three civic bodies, at least 14 incidents of tree felling were reported in the city.
Commuters had a harrowing experience travelling from one place to another as vehicles crawled on important stretches. People were also seen wading through waterlogged streets in different areas of the national Capital. Stretches that witnessed jams include ITO, Dhaula Kuan, Mehram Nagar underpass near the airport, Vikas Marg, Mathura Road, Ring Road, Mukarba Chowk, Rohtak Road near Peeragarhi, Connaught Place, Barakhamba Road, Dwarka-Palam flyover and Bhairon Marg.
Narrating his tale of traffic woe, a commuter, Vikas Tyagi, said that it took him over four hours to reach Burari from Hapur due to extensive waterlogging on the city streets.
Due to the waterlogging, the Delhi Traffic Police in the morning closed several crucial underpasses and traffic moved at a snail's pace at many stretches. The traffic police took to Twitter to inform commuters about road closures. "Traffic movement on Minto Bridge (both carriageways) has been closed due to waterlogging. Please avoid (the) stretch," the traffic police said in a tweet.
Hours later, it informed people that normal traffic movement had been restored at the Minto Bridge underpass.
To ease out the rain-induced traffic situation in the city, CP Delhi Rakesh Asthana directed that traffic staff should put more focus on smooth vehicular traffic particularly during peak hours. He also directed the district DCPs to coordinate with Traffic and PCR while putting barricades on roads for checking to not affect the smooth flow of traffic or cause avoidable public inconvenience.
Last month, CM Arvind Kejriwal had said that a "world-class drainage system" would be developed across the national capital. He had said drainage systems like the one at Minto Road would be replicated across Delhi and drains and sewers would be de-silted regularly.
A senior PWD official said that the main reason behind the flooding of the Minto Road underpass was overflow of a DJB sewer line along with a "very high intensity' rain.
"Very high intensity and record rains occurred on Saturday. which triggered overflow of a DJB sewer line near DDU Marg. This resulted waterlogging in the Minto Road underpass. We have all the system in place so traffic was stopped immediately and water was pumped out," the official said.
He added that the underpass was opened for traffic in three hours.
On Saturday, the traffic police said that underpasses at Azad Market in central Delhi and Azadpur in north Delhi had been closed for traffic, while vehicular movement was affected at Moolchand and Pul Prahladpur underpasses in south Delhi due to waterlogging.
Other places that witnessed waterlogging include the Ring Road near WHO building, near IP Flyover, Tilak Bridge underpass, Lajpat Nagar, Jangpura, AIIMS flyover, Connaught Place, ITO, Pusa Road, Maharani Bagh, GTK DTC depot, yards of New Delhi Railway Station and Old Delhi Railway Station, roads around Pragati Maidan, Rohtak Road, Nand Nagri and Loni Chowk.
Traffic movement was also disrupted on the Mehrauli-Badarpur road in south Delhi.
"Waterlogging at Pul Prahladpur Underpass. Traffic interrupted at MB road diverted on Mathura road. Kindly avoid (the) stretch," the traffic police tweeted.
Several residential areas and markets in Krishna Nagar, Mayur Vihar-2, Babarpur, Mangolpuri, Kirari, Malviya Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Sadar Bazar were also inundated.
