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Rain plays havoc with Delhi traffic; cops, civic agencies caught unprepared
Delhi traffic police, however, said this “unexpected” and “heavy” rain spelt a night of havoc for commuters. “From Thursday evening to Friday noon, we received 46 complaints of jams on our helpline number,” a senior traffic official said.
An hour of downpour was all it took to bring Delhi to a standstill on Thursday evening. Traffic was thrown out of gear as roads remained water-logged till Friday morning. Many officer-goers were stuck in snarls and slow-moving traffic even on Friday morning in Trilokpuri, Palam and Laxmi Nagar.
In south Delhi, problems with drainage and the repair work on the Hyatt flyover made the normally chaotic traffic situation on the Ring Road worse.
Scientists at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday, Safdarjung received 47.3mm of rain while Palam recorded 30mm rain. Data shows that Lodi Road recorded 55.2mm rain, while the Ridge station recorded 34.7mm rain and Ayanagar 33.4mm.
“There was nothing unusual about the rain— it was in the forecast and was induced by local activity,” a scientist at the IMD said.
Delhi traffic police, however, said this “unexpected” and “heavy” rain spelt a night of havoc for commuters. “From Thursday evening to Friday noon, we received 46 complaints of jams on our helpline number,” a senior traffic official said.
“It took me over two hours to reach Dwarka from ITO. After crossing the Teen Murti Marg, the traffic was crawling. There was no traffic personnel to manage the roads. Two-wheeler riders took refuge under Metro bridges and flyovers, further hindering traffic movement,” Mohini Tiwari, a resident of Dwarka’s Sector 6, said.
Traffic officers said the worst affected stretch was the Ring Road— between Dhaula Kuan and Moolchand — where the water-logging was heavy.
A senior official of the public works department (PWD) said the stretch between Dhaula Kuan and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was also inundated. The stormwater drains below the Ring Road, along RK Puram and Sarojini Nagar, had a blockage, resulting in backflow.
“This drain meets Barapullah drain and the problem was between Hyatt Regency and Sarojini Nagar. So the rainwater started flowing back on to the Ring Road and nearby areas,” the PWD official said.
A senior official of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) said the rain was of “exceptional intensity”. “The intensity of the rain was such that the drains failed to discharge water rapidly,” the official said.
Experts agreed that such heavy rain was uncharacteristic, but lack of maintenance was to be blamed. “Every year, Delhi comes to a halt when it rains. In the name of maintenance, agencies re-carpet roads, often blocking the drainage exits on the side of the road,” Prateek Kumar Gossain, urban planner from IIT-Delhi, said.
