Rain hits rush hour traffic; helpline stays unreachable
NEW DELHI: Day long heavy shower in the Capital on Tuesday might have brought relief to the citizens but caused severe traffic snarls on many roads. While the social media was flooded with traffic complaints, Delhi Police Traffic helpline was not reachable.
The sky was cloudy from the early morning with the minimum temperature recorded as 26.6 degree Celsius, much lower than the average.
The Safdarjung observatory received 3.3 mm rainfall till this morning in the last 24 hours. The temperature of the day also settled within 30-32 plummeting from the scorching 38-39 degree.
Many important roads and residential areas became waterlogged due to heavy shower.
The traffic on the GT Road near Shastri Park came to a halt due to rain. Traffic was also very slow in important places like ITO, Cannaught Place, Mayur Vihar, Ashram among others.
Traffic was stuck at Teenmurti Circle for more than an hour and police were allegedly not present at the spot.
Movement of vehicles was also slow at Malviya Nagar, Munrika, and Hauz Khas, leaving office and school goers stuck in massive jams.
However, the traffic police helpline was not reachable. The social media sites were flooded with complaints of traffic jam at various places and people there also requested to the police for help.
While the citizens complaint against the poor traffic management in the city, no updates of jam was there at Delhi Traffic Police's twitter handle.
The MET Department foretasted that heavy shower will be continued for the last 72 hours.
Rains occurred in Delhi including the nearby areas such as Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad and Ghaziabad. Heavy showers are likely to end after Friday, but medium showers will continue.
Humidity was recorded to be in the last 24 hours, between 65 and 97 per cent.
The MET department noted that next week, the monsoon trough is likely to shift towards the north, leading to increased rainfall.
Last week, the city saw 14.7 mm of rainfall, according to the data of MET Department.
DTC buses and other vehicles were reportedly broke down at many places due to heavy rain causing more congestion.
Many vehicles also broke down near Haiderpur metro station, Mukarba Chowk, Dhaula Kuan and other places. NEW DELHI: Delhi Police will add 35 sniffer and explosive detection dogs trained by the Indian Army within a month.
Disclosing this, Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajan Bhagat said these dogs would help police in tracking and solving crimes and finding evidences from crime spots.
The decision to add these dogs to the force was taken after back-to-back inputs by the Special Cell of Delhi Police of possible terror attacks in the national Capital. Even on Monday, the Special Cell issued an advisory about two terrorists trying to enter Delhi to execute terror attacks.
"Currently we have 60 sniffer and explosive detection dogs, comprising Labradors, German Shepherds and Cocker Spaniels. But we have a requirement for 150 dogs. At present, we have two to three dogs in each police district. This is less than the minimum requirement," Bhagat said.
"We keep such dogs for eight years and after that we declare them retired. We need more strength this time to manage the security of Delhi. Therefore, we sent a proposal to the Army to give Delhi Police 150 dogs more. They agreed to give us 100 dogs soon, out of which 35 trained dogs will be given within July from the Army Veterinary Corps," said Bhagat, who is also in-charge of the Delhi Police Dog Squad.
These dogs are also deployed at Delhi Metro stations, hotels and VVIP events. "Delhi witnesses a number of VVIP programmes or mass activities on a daily basis, which can be targeted by anti-national elements," the officer said.
According to Bhagat, currently 60 dogs are kept at two centres located in Model Town and Chanakyapuri areas. "But all of them are not fit for work round the clock. So we decided to raise their number.
"These dogs are given tough training spanning over six to nine months by the Army. The National Security Guard (NSG) also hires trained dogs from the Army. These dogs are handed over to NGOS working in the veterinary field after we retire them," Bhagat added.