Just three hours of rain enough to set Delhi’s traffic out of order on Thursday | Latest News Delhi - Hindustan Times
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Just three hours of rain enough to set Delhi’s traffic out of order on Thursday

By, New Delhi
Jul 30, 2021 12:26 AM IST

Commuters laid bare their frustration at the traffic on social media, posting pictures of long traffic jams and waterlogged roads.

Just a few hours of rain on Thursday led to a now familiar sight in the Capital — waterlogged roads, crawling traffic and long-winded snarls.

Thursday’s spell of rain, which coincided with the peak traffic hours, was enough to bring traffic to a screeching halt on some of the city’s most crucial arterial roads.(PTI Photo / Manvender Vashist)
Thursday’s spell of rain, which coincided with the peak traffic hours, was enough to bring traffic to a screeching halt on some of the city’s most crucial arterial roads.(PTI Photo / Manvender Vashist)

In tune with contemporary weather patterns, the city was dry for much of Thursday, except for a three-hour span between 2.30pm and 5.30pm, when the city got a bulk of the day’s 72mm of rain.

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Over the last decade, the Capital has been receiving shorter and more intense spells of rain, experts have said, a change in monsoon patterns that is the primary reason behind increasing instances of urban flooding and flash floods in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).

Thursday’s spell of rain, which coincided with the peak traffic hours, was enough to bring traffic to a screeching halt on some of the city’s most crucial arterial roads, including ones in ITO, Dhaula Kuan, Pragati Maidan, Sri Aurobindo Marg (below the AIIMS flyover), Barapullah, Signature Bridge, Hari Nagar and Geeta Colony, showed data from the Delhi traffic police.

Commuters laid bare their frustration at the traffic on social media, posting pictures of long traffic jams and waterlogged roads.

“There was a heavy traffic jam between AIIMS and Ashram flyover (on the Ring Road). It took around three hours to reach the DND (Delhi-Noida-Direct Flyway),” tweeted Jagannath Kar, a commuter.

Another commuter, Sonal Maheshwari, tweeted, “What is the problem on the Barapullah flyover? My father is stuck from the last two hours in the same spot. Can someone take action?”

Senior traffic police officers said that a large number of personnel were deployed across the city on Thursday evening, the inundated roads led to vehicles slowly navigating through the water, which in turn led to a cascading effect to other arterial roads.

The Safdarjung weather station, which provides representative data for the city, received 72mm rainfall till 5.30pm, even as the Palam weather station in South-West Delhi did not receive any rain till Thursday evening.

The rain did, however, keep the city cool on Thursday. The Safdarjung station recorded a maximum temperature of 32.1 degrees Celsius, two below what is considered normal for this time of the year, and a minimum temperature of 24°C, three below normal.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’s regional weather forecasting centre, said that there is a forecast of ‘light to moderate’ showers on July 30-31 as well. “The monsoon trough is persisting in Delhi and hence more showers are likely over the next couple of days. There may be patchy rainfall on August 1-2 as well. This will also keep the temperature in check,” he said.

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