Torrential rain lashes City

Seasons heaviest showers make it a miserable day

The Capital witnessed the season’s heaviest rainfall on Tuesday that led to several traffic jams and water logging across the city.

Close to 54.5 mm of rainfall was recorded for the past 24 hours till 8:30 am, which is the highest for the city since the Monsoon started.

Another 28.2 mm of rainfall was recorded between 8:30 am and 5:30 pm. The Met Department has forecast more rains for next two days.

“The maximum temperature was recorded at 29.4 degree Celsius, which is four degrees below normal, while the minimum was 24.8, one degree below normal. There are more rains coming tomorrow as well,” said an official from the MeT department.

The official added that this was a relief for the city as Delhi has received only 244.4 mm of rainfall since the onset of monsoon which is 47 per cent deficient.

Delhiites also faced traffic woes apart from the relief and many were left stranded on roads because of jams across the city. The traffic police had issued an advisory about traffic jams at ITO, Laxmi Nagar, Ring Road, Dwarka and Mathura Road. Traffic was affected on Ring Road due to water logging at the end of Bhishma Pitamah Marg flyover and Pragati Vihar Hostel.

Waterlogging was also reported from Bhogal, Delhi Gate, Najafgarh, Chhawla Bus Stand, Nizamuddin Khatta, Adarsh Nagar to Jahangirpuri and several other areas in the capital.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s control room received nearly 64 complaints about waterlogging on Tuesday.

The rain uprooted trees in Sangam Park, Vijay Nagar, Dwarka Sector 24, Mayur Vihar Phase 1, J Block market in Saket, Malviya Nagar and Greater Kailash-II. A wall collapse took place because of the rain in Kamla Nagar and another near Sadar Bazar.

Coincidentally, on a day when Delhi residents faced waterlogging issues, the Delhi High Court also pulled up civic agencies for not taking adequate measures to desilt drains to prevent waterlogging during monsoon.

The court has asked the trifurcated MCD and the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) to provide a record of road maps related to the drainage system by next week. While, MCD claimed that they are working on long-term plans on the issue as per the 2021 master plan, the court said citizens cannot wait till 2021 so waterlogging issues can be solved.