Rain fury: Central Delhi choked for nearly five hours

New Delhi: The sudden downpour and strong winds, which left a trail of damage in the form of uprooted trees and poles on the roads, caused traffic jams in several parts of the Capital, especially in central Delhi where the roads were choked for nearly five hours

New Delhi: The sudden downpour and strong winds, which left a trail of damage in the form of uprooted trees and poles on the roads, caused traffic jams in several parts of the Capital, especially in central Delhi where the roads were choked for nearly five hours.

HT Image

Deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Aalap Patel said that among the roads that were heavily affected was C-Hexagon (India Gate circle), Tilak Mark to Laxmi Nagar link bridge, Firozeshah Road, Shahjahan Road, Akbar Road, Copernicus Marg, Ashoka Road, and the other adjoining roads. “Because a lot of trees fell on the roads, they were completely blocked initially but traffic police and concerned departments immediately started working to clear the trees. The traffic was slow but started moving shortly after,” he said, adding that traffic was diverted in real time.

The traffic police booth in the middle of Rajpath and the traffic signal attached to it were also damaged in the storm. “The problem was that the damage was so large-scale that most routes had to be closed for traffic intermittently which caused a lot of cascading traffic,” said an official from the Delhi traffic police who was managing the area.

Traffic was impacted in other parts of Delhi as well, including from Badli Metro Station to Peeragarhi Chowk and the Barapulla flyover to Noida.

A traffic department official, who asked not to be named, said that over 500 calls were received to report waterlogging and traffic disruption due to falling trees, poles, and other objects. Traffic officials said that they coordinated with civic agencies to handle the situation on the ground.

Delhi Fire Services (DFS) was also roped in to help clear the roads. “We received instructions from civic agencies to deploy firemen on the roads to remove fallen trees and other objects. Most of our men were on the ground to tackle the situation,” said DFS Director Atul Garg.

Several people took to social media to complain about being stuck in traffic. One user said he that was stuck in front of Cottage Emporium leading to Ashoka Road for an hour while another claimed that there were no personnel to clear the choked Akbar Road stretch.

Another user also tweeted that her vehicle ran out of petrol after being stuck in traffic in Lajpat Nagar, following which the traffic police shared the number of a traffic inspector with the user for help.