Morning rain wreaks havoc, traffic crawls across Delhi
Downpour brings relief to residents from humidity
NEW DELHI: Heavy rainfall in Delhi NCR on Saturday morning threw traffic out of gear, as vehicles crawled through waterlogged roads. In what has become a common sight during rains in Delhi, a cluster bus broke down on the waterlogged Ring Road near Kashmere Gate trapping 15 passengers, who had to be rescued by the Delhi Fire Services (DFS).
In a repeat of July’s incident at Shivaji Bridge in central Delhi, a Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) orange cluster bus broke down on the waterlogged Ring Road near Hanuman Mandir in Yamuna Bazar area. “The passengers had to jump off the boundary along the road in order to avoid getting stuck in the waist-deep water. After almost half an hour, DFS officials rescued the passengers,” said a commuter, who helped in the operation.
The rain also forced the Rashtrapati Bhavan to cancel the Change of Guard ceremony scheduled on Saturday morning, it said in a post on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s rain brought respite from humidity brining down the maximum temperature five notches below normal. Delhi’s Ridge received 61.1mm of rainfall between Friday (8.30am) and Saturday (8.30 am), said the regional meteorological office. Officials said the downpour is likely to continue over the next two days. The maximum temperature on Saturday was recorded as 29.4 degrees Celsius as against Friday’s 34.0 degrees.
SNARLS ACROSS DELHI
Long traffic snarls were witnessed at all arterial roads while thousands of commuters had a harrowing time navigating their way through knee-deep water through the first half of the day.
Waterlogging was reported from key stretches across Delhi like ITO (Vikas Marg), Ashram, Modi Mill Flyover, Rao Tula Ram (RTR) T-Point, Rajghat, Janpath, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, near Lajpat Nagar on Ring Road, Indraprastha Marg, Rajendra Prasad Road, Bharion Road, Purana Qila Road, Shershah Marg, Teen Murti, 11 Murti, GT Karnal Road, Minto Road and others.
Delhi Traffic Police advised commuters on Twitter to avoid Delhi-Noida Road towards Ashram where traffic was blocked after a bus broke down.
“Traffic movement was closed on Bhairon Road both ways due to waterlogging. Residents were advised time to time to avoid several routes where vehicles had broken down causing traffic to pile up,” said a traffic official.
“I was travelling to east Delhi in the morning. As I approached NH-24 around 7am it started raining. It became difficult to navigate as visibility was almost zero. I was moving slowly.
However, after I noticed that water had accumulated on the highway I decided to return home. I preferred to go back home instead of getting stuck on waterlogged road,” said Ankush Tiwari, a commuter.
Meanwhile, 70-year-old woman was killed after a two-storey house collapsed due to heavy rain in Ghaziabad’s Loni on Saturday.
Local police the house first tilted to one side and later came crashing down in the morning rain. Reports emerged from both Noida and Ghaziabad about several busy roads getting waterlogged and congested with traffic from the morning till early afternoon.