Morning showers trigger waterlogging woes in Delhi, more expected in the day: IMD

Though no colour-coded alerts are in place for the days ahead, the IMD has still forecast light rain to continue till Sunday.

Delhi received extended spells of rain on Wednesday morning, with waterlogging seen in some parts of the city, leading to traffic snarls.

Commuters cover themselves amid heavy rainfall in New Delhi. (ANI Photo)

The downpour came even as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an ‘orange’ alert for light to moderate rain in southwest and northwest Delhi, with a ‘red’ alert in place for ‘moderate to heavy’ rain in northeast and southeast Delhi till noon, as per an update issued at 8:40am.

In the 24 hours till 8:30am, Safdarjung, Delhi’s base weather station, logged 14.4mm. In the same period, Lodhi road recorded 20.6mm, Palam 1.9mm, Ridge 32.8mm, Pragati Maidan 38.9mm, Pusa 23.5mm, Najafgarh 13mm and Janakpuri 18.5mm.

“Most stations are expected to record light to moderate rain throughout the day. Rainfall activity may lead to waterlogging in some places,” an IMD official said.

Though no colour-coded alerts are in place for the days ahead, the IMD has still forecast light rain to continue till Sunday.

So far this month, Delhi has logged 141.9mm of rainfall, inching closer to the monthly long period average (LPA) of 209.7mm in July. Last year, the city logged 203.7mm of rainfall, while the city recorded 384.6mm in 2023.

The IMD classifies rainfall as ‘light’ when it is up to 15.5mm; as ‘moderate’ when it is between 15.6 to 64.4mm and as ‘heavy’ when it is over 64.4mm in a 24-hour window.

Traffic snarls cripple city

The morning downpour severely disrupted vehicular movement across several parts of the city, as motorists had a harrowing experience due to heavy traffic congestion on key arterial roads, including the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, National Highway-9, Vikas Marg linking central and east Delhi, the Delhi Noida Direct (DND) flyway, Barapullah flyway, Outer Ring Road, and the Ring Road.

In central Delhi, traffic snarls were reported on Purana Quila Road and the Pragati Maidan Tunnel, along with Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Tilak Marg, the India Gate Circle — especially between Tilak Marg and the C-Hexagon intersection — extending further to Purana Quila Road. Additional congestion occurred on Shershah Road, Shahjahan Road, Ashoka Road, and Akbar Road. Vehicular movement was also affected in several parts of Lutyens’ Delhi such as Motilal Nehru Marg, Maulana Azad Road, Kamraj Road, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Road, Teen Murti Marg, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Marg, and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg.

South Delhi, too, witnessed widespread traffic disruption, particularly on the Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, and major routes leading to Gurugram via Mahipalpur and Mehrauli. Traffic on Mathura Road, between Badarpur Border and Ashram Chowk, was badly hit, with almost the entire stretch jammed except for a few relief points. The movement of kanwariyas through this corridor added to the gridlock.

The Ring Road stretch between Bhikaji Cama Place and the AIIMS Loop was severely impacted, with vehicles crawling. Sri Aurobindo Marg, from AIIMS to Mehrauli, experienced jams at multiple stretches, while both the Mehrauli-Gurugram and Mehrauli-Badarpur roads reported similar chaos. The Outer Ring Road in south Delhi saw bottlenecks near Munirka Metro Station, IIT flyover, between Khelgaon and Panchsheel flyovers, around Chirag Delhi, and at Nehru Place.

In east Delhi, bumper-to-bumper traffic jams were observed on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway and NH-9, particularly from Mayur Vihar Phase-2 to the Sarai Kale Khan intersection, where vehicles merge onto the Ring Road. Vikas Marg, leading from Karkari Mor flyover to ITO, was jammed with slow-moving vehicles, especially between Preet Vihar and Laxmi Nagar. Traffic congestion was also prevalent between the Yamuna Bridge and the ITO intersection.

Western Delhi saw disruptions as well, particularly on Rohtak Road near Mundka, where broken stretches and waterlogging slowed traffic considerably. Najafgarh Road, between Zakhira and Dwarka Mor, faced disturbances at multiple locations, including Dwarka Mor Metro Station, Janakpuri West Metro Station, and Ramesh Nagar.