Rain, waterlogged streets bring city to grinding halt

 As a result, the motorists could not cross the underpass, leading to major traffic snarls in the nearby areas. So far, Delhi has received 115.4 mm of rain till Friday morning which is 11 per cent higher than the average rainfall in the city.

The commuters were stuck for hours on both the sides of Delhi-Faridabad toll bridge and the carriageway leading to Badarpur and Mehrauli. There was heavy vehicular movement on entire Mehrauli to Badarpur road. As the underpass was waterlogged the traffic came to a halt for hours.

 The traffic congestion due to waterlogging also had cascading effect on arterial roads and toll bridges which is used by Delhi to Mehrauli and also by traffic going in the reverse direction. The situation worsened after some vehicles tried to make U turn to avoid congestion.

Similarly, commuters coming from Mehrauli via MB Road were stuck for a long time. Apart from traffic snarl in this area, reports of traffic jams came from other parts of the city as well and the major reason was due to water-logging. 

The areas like Rajender Nagar, Karol Bagh, Pusa Road and Metro construction sites also faced traffic snarl. “The civic bodies make tall claims about Monsoon preparation but even a rainfall of half an hour is sufficient for huge traffic jam on this road,” said Anirudh Kumar a car driver. 

According to the traffic department, the major cause behind the traffic jams is attributed to waterlogging on the arterial roads of the national Capital. Apart from the water-logging issue, in some of the areas on South-western range, several traffic signals went offline for a short while due to seepage of water into the systems.

 According to Delhi traffic police, traffic snarls were also reported at the Mayapuri flyover, Nand Nagri, Peeragarhi, Narayana, Vikas Marg,and Delhi Gate. Vehicles heading to Central Delhi from Kashmere gate were stalled due to water-logging near Chungi underpass. 

“Due to several potholes near the fire station in Narayana area, there was slow moving traffic in the area. However, the ongoing construction on the elevated road, traffic snarls were reported on the road of Vikaspuri towards Peeragarhi,” said a senior traffic police officer.

The weathermen have forecast rain on Saturday afternoon to evening. “The current spell of rains will continue till next weekend,” said a senior officer at Regional Meteorological Centre, Delhi. According to weathermen, the average rainfall in the city on Friday was 4.4 mm while Pusa Road region received maximum 57 mm of rainfall followed by 22 mm at Pitampura.

 The maximum temperature on Friday was recorded at 35 degrees Celsius which was two points below normal, while the minimum settled at 29.8 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal. “On Saturday, the maximum and minimum temperature will hover around 35 and 29 degrees Celsius respectively,” said the MeT officer.