Delhi gets light rain; Gurugram buckles under 75mm spell

The national Capital recorded 6

The national Capital recorded 6.5 mm of light rainfall in the early hours of Saturday, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicting light spells over the next few days, before a dry end to the next week. While the rainfall had negligible impact on daily life in Delhi, neighbouring Gurugram buckled under 75mm of heavy rain overnight, with several roads waterlogged for over 12 hours and multiple localities reporting power outages lasting at least five hours.

A basketball court at a government school in Kadipur, Gurugram, remained waterlogged on Saturday morning. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

Delhi’s monsoon rainfall currently stands at 242.3mm, against a long-period average of 233.1mm, according to IMD data.

While cloudy skies are predicted to persist, the maximum temperature is expected to remain between 33 degrees Celsius (°C) and 36°C. On Saturday, high humidity levels led to a spike in the heat index (HI) well, with Delhi recording an HI of 43°C at 5.30pm, against an actual temperature of 33.4°C—a difference of almost 10°C, due to humidity of 66%.

Experts said that the same was due to the monsoon axis not remaining over Delhi. “It is still fluctuating, and is mainly remaining at the Himalaya foothills. It travels slightly southwards during the night, and thus, we are expecting moderate to heavy rain from late Saturday night to early Sunday morning, and late Sunday night to early Monday morning. However, from the coming Tuesday, the city’s weather is likely to be completely dry, as the axis will move completely to the foothills,” said amateur meteorologist Navdeep Dahiya.

Overnight rainfall in the Millennium City laid bare claims of civic agencies that water would no longer accumulate on Gurugram’s roads, with several key stretches remaining waterlogged even 12 hours after the rain stopped, highlighting persistent drainage issues and raising questions over desilting claims.

Waterlogging was reported at Tulip Chowk 60-metre road, Airia Mall stretch on Sohna Road, Hero Honda Chowk, Rajiv Chowk underpass and non-motorised transport facility, Sector 66 service road, Civil Hospital Road, Sector 10A, parts of sectors 9, 14 and 15 (part 2), and Narsinghpur.

Anil Kumar, a resident of Sector 69, said Tulip Chowk has faced waterlogging even during light showers. “This has been a recurring problem for years. Parts of the road are also in a poor condition. Every time it rains, the stretch gets waterlogged and remains submerged for hours until the water is pumped out,” he said.

The stretch near Euro International School in Sector 10 and Civil Hospital Road remained waterlogged hours after the rain.

Reema Khatri, a commuter, said waterlogging persisted on the Sector 10 road even at 11am. “The water had risen to knee-level, making it difficult for commuters and motorists to pass through the stretch. This is one of the worst-affected areas, she said.

An official of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) said that a subdivisional official visited Tulip Chowk to oversee the deployment of staff and workers to pump out accumulated water. “Our teams were deployed at areas where water had accumulated since morning to ensure that traffic was not disrupted,” the official said, asking not to be named.

Several areas across Gurugram also reported power outages, lasting up to five hours. These included societies in Sushant Lok-1, 2, and 3, sectors 52, 57, 71, 99, 102, 103, and DLF Phases 1, 2, and 3, among others.

Residents took to social media to voice their problems and lodge complaints of power outages, which started around 12.30am.

Brij Kishore Singh, a Sector 103 resident, said post-rain power outages had become the new normal in sectors along the Dwarka Expressway. “Several societies in Sector 103 and neighbouring areas suffered a long power outage from 1am. Supply was restored only after 6am. The government should investigate why power infrastructure fails every time it rains. It seems there is no proper maintenance. Discom officials mostly cite ‘feeder fault’ in any outage,” Singh said.

Urmila Mattu, a resident of Sushant Lok-3 in Sector 57, said the outage started at around 12.30am and continued past 5am. “We repeatedly followed up with discom officials to seek an estimated time for power restoration, but received no response,” she said.

Officials of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBVN), said that continuous heavy rainfall caused faults in feeders in several areas, besides sparking, broken poles, and trees and branches damaging power lines, leading to outages in several areas.

A discom official, requesting anonymity, said that underground feeders near Farrukhnagar and Sector 99 developed faults after the rain, affecting electricity supply in several societies along the Dwarka Expressway.

“Local faults from poles, transformers, and overhead supply lines damaged by short-circuits or branches collapsing due to heavy rain caused the outages. Ground teams restored all of them by morning, starting repair work soon after the rain stopped,” the official said.