Delhi rain: Downpour leaves motorists tackling jams, potholed roads

The incessant rain throughout Saturday led to waterlogging in several parts of Delhi, throwing vehicular movement into chaos, despite the volume of traffic being low on account of it being the weekend and the second Saturday of the month, when all government offices are shut

The incessant rain throughout Saturday led to waterlogging in several parts of Delhi, throwing vehicular movement into chaos, despite the volume of traffic being low on account of it being the weekend and the second Saturday of the month, when all government offices are shut.

New Delhi, Oct 08 (ANI): Vehicles wade through a waterlogged road following heavy rainfall, in New Delhi on Saturday. (ANI Photo) (Ishant)

As many as six arterial stretches in central, south, south-west and outer Delhi were waterlogged and several rain battered stretches developed craters as well. Two such instances were reported from south Delhi – near the Moti Bagh Gurdwara and on a slip road from Aurobindo Marg towards Press Enclave Road, the Delhi Traffic Police said.

Snarls -- triggered by the continuous downpour, waterlogging, non-functional traffic signals and potholes -- stretched for kilometres, even during the non-peak hours.

Motorists were left ruing the conditions and many took to social media to lament about the chaos and seek the help from of traffic police in easing the bumper-to-bumper traffic. Some social media users also uploaded videos and photographs of jams and screenshots of Google maps, where most roads and routes appeared as crimson streaks, indicative of high traffic volume and delayed travel time.

More chaos could be in store on Sunday as well, according to the traffic police, which issued two advisories about religious processions scheduled on Sunday on the occasion of Valmiki Jayanti” and“Eid-e-Milad-ul-Nabi” because of which traffic could be disrupted in several parts of the city, especially post afternoon.

The police listed a series of roads in north, east, west north-east, central, outer, north-west, outer-north, south-east, and Shahdara districts, where religious processions will be taken out by Hindus and Muslims and urged motorists to go through the list before starting their journey.

On Saturday. at least three Twitter users reported about ambulances stuck in jams on Arya Samaj Road, Raja Puri, and Najafgarh Road.

The roads that witnessed long snarls were Daryaganj-Kashmere Gate Road, Outer Ring Road from Bhairon Marg till Delhi-Meerut Expressway exit and from Sarai Kale Khan to Lajpat Nagar via Ashram Chowk, Mathura Road Ashram Underpass to NFC Mata Mandir and further from Jasola to Mohan Estate.

Jams were also seen around Kalindi Kunj as commuters travelling between Noida and Delhi faced delays. Several places in the eastern parts of Delhi also witnessed jams.

In south Delhi, movement of vehicles was disrupted Lajpat Nagar flyover and Chirag Dilli flyover, near Hazrat Nizamuddin metro station, Barapullah flyover, Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) Flyway, from IIT flyover till Mehrauli, from Chhatarpur towards Vasant Kunj, from IIT flyover till Munirka.

In south-west and outer Delhi, Gurugram-Delhi roads near Mahipalpur and Rajokri flyover, Pankha Road, Jankpuri to Dhaula Kuan via Delhi Cantonment, Naraina to Moti Bagh, Palam-Dwarka Road, Najafgarh Road, Nangloi-Najafgarh Road, Delhi-Rohtak Road between Nangloi and Mundka, Burari bypass, were among the places where long tailbacks were seen.

“The traffic control room flashed messages to all personnel to ensure manual regulation of traffic at intersections where there was no power supply, remove broken down vehicles and restore normal flow of traffic,” the traffic police said.

Messages were also flashed to the control rooms of civic agencies and they were pressed into using local resources and manpower to handle rain related complaints.

Inundated Roads

According to the police, six places where waterlogging was worse were Pragati Maidan near Gate no-4 on Mathura Road, Dhaula Kuan flyover and Maharani Bagh to Kilokri on the Ring Road, Jhandewala roundabout at Panchkuian Road, near Rajdhani Park Metro station on Rohtak Road and near Anand Parbat-Zakhira traffic signal.

Heavy waterlogging was also reported from areas such as Mohan Garden, Uttam Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Anand Vihar, Bhajanpura, Wazirabad, INA, AIIMS, Mehrauli Badarpur road, Tughlaqabad, Kirari, Rohtak Road, Nangloi, Najafgarh road, Kapashera road, Mahipalpur, Jhandewalan, Dhaula Kuan and Rangpuri.

Prashant Raj, a commuter on Mehrauli-Badarpur (MB) Road, said, “Severe waterlogging coupled with ongoing metro construction work led to delays of more than 30-40 minutes.”

Dhaula Kuan was also heavily waterlogged, disrupting the schedule of those headed towards the airport and Gurugram.

While commuters from across the city were complaining on social media about the waterlogging and jams, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), in its monsoon report for Saturday, said it received only one complaint regarding waterlogging, from Munirka in south Delhi. A municipal official clarified that MCD only records only complaint that were made to its helplines or the zonal offices.

The monsoon report, however, notes seven cases of trees falling, mostly from south Delhi, and said the horticulture department was deployed to help clear branches and trunk.

Market chaos

The weekend crowd at markets found themselves stuck in snarls that took hours to ease. Rajeev Sahu, a visitor to south Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar market, said he was forced to spend an additional half an hour on Brigadier Hoshiyar Singh Marg because of the jam. “It was completely choked and at every traffic signal, you had to spend at least 10 minutes,” Sahu said.

Ashok Randhawa, who heads the mini-market traders association at Sarojini Nagar, said there are 21 roads leading towards the market before the construction of government colonies and 18 of them are now closed. “So there are very few roads left to enter the market. And even the merest hint of rain or a vehicle breaking down throws the traffic into chaos. It has been raining the entire day and the situation is chaotic around the market,” he added.

In Karol bagh, Murli Mani, who heads the Ajmal Khan Road Traders’ Association, said the traffic was in chaos on all four sides of the market. “Traffic management is poor. The slightest rain is all it takes for the traffic signals to stop functioning and enough personnel are not deployed on roads to control the situation. People avoid the market whenever it rains.The situation on Arya Samaj road is particularly messy,” he added.