Day-long showers bring respite from humidity but spell trouble on Delhi roads
The maximum temperature was recorded at 32.2 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season’s average while the minimum temperature settled at 26.6 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the year.
Heavy rain with thundershowers lashed the National Capital on Thursday, bringing the mercury down even though traffic was thrown out of gear and waterlogging was reported at many places.
The Safdarjung observatory, whose figures are considered official for the city, received 59mm rainfall between 8.30am and 5.30pm.
Areas under Lodhi Road, Palam, Ayanagar and Ridge received 42.6, 23.8, 35.3 and 22.6 mm of rain, respectively, in the same time period.
The maximum temperature was recorded at 32.2 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season’s average while the minimum temperature settled at 26.6 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the year.
The humidity level oscillated between 100 and 76%.
The Met office has forecast light to moderate rain at many places and heavy rain at isolated places for Friday.
“This rain has been triggered by a monsoon trough. This is expected to continue till Saturday. The maximum and minimum temperatures on Friday are expected to hover at 32 and 25 degrees, respectively,” the weatherman said.
The rainy day brought its share of woes in the form of waterlogging and traffic jams.
According to traffic police officials, snarls were reported in the carriageway from Hyatt towards Safdarjung, Captain Gaur Marg in the carriageway from Moolchand towards Ring Road, in the carriageway from M.B. Road to Khanpur, from Mundka towards Rajdhani Park, Modi Mill U-turn, from Savitri flyover towards Nehru Place and on Pul Prahlad Pur Underpass (both carriageways) due to waterlogging.
There was obstruction in traffic from Raj Nagar Flyover to Safdarjung due to the breakdown of a DTC bus.
Bumper to bumper traffic was seen during the day from Kirby Place towards Dhaula Kuan and Masoodpur towards Kishangarh due to two separate incidents of tree falling.
“It was such a pleasant day. But it took me 30 minutes more to reach work in Gurgaon,” Priyanka Chakroborty, a Chittaranjan Park resident, said.
Intermittent showers threw traffic out of gear in Delhi through Thursday even as traffic police personnel, dressed in white rain coats, manually manned vehicular movement in the absence of functional signals on many stretches.
Vehicles moved slowly even in the non-peak traffic hours in the afternoon due to water-logged stretches of roads, combined with fallen trees. But with office goers returning to their homes in the evening hours, the situation turned from bad to worse.
Though jams were reported from across Delhi, the worst affected were southern parts of the city. Commuters complained about being stuck for as many as two hours in some of these areas.
In the afternoon, traffic police officers took to social media to warn commuters to avoid the road from Savitri Flyover towards Nehru Place.
“It was a three-kilometre jam and took me over an hour. At one place, I was stuck for nearly 30 minutes,” said Dhiraj Mahesh, a PR professional.
The nearby neighbourhoods too were choked with slow moving traffic. The seven-kilometre stretch from Khanpur to CR Park was packed on both sides, commuters complained.
Traffic police received similar complaints of water-logging and jams from other south Delhi roads such as the BRT corridor, IGNOU Road, Chirag Delhi Flyover and neighbourhoods such as Okhla Phase-2, Sangam Vihar and Govindpuri.
“School buses were stuck in Sangam Vihar. Motorists choosing to travel on the wrong side of the road to beat the traffic jam ended up in a gridlock,” said Shahnawaz, a resident of Sangam Vihar.
In Okhla Phase-2, commuters had to call the traffic police to physically regulate traffic when dysfunctional traffic signals left vehicles stranded.
Jams were reported from other parts of the city. Both carriageways of the route between Mundka and Rajdhani Park in west Delhi were packed for hours due to water-logging.
Fallen trees resulted in jams on a few stretches. On the route from Kirby Place to Dhaula Kuan, a fallen tree led to jams for nearly three hours from 10 am. In south Delhi too, a fallen tree on the road from Masoodpur to Kishanganj resulted in jams.
By evening, the rainy season’s usual culprits, such as the roads from MB Road to Khanpur, Hyatt to Safdarjung and Captain Gaur Marg from Moolchand to Ring Road were packed with commuters stranded for long periods. Commuters complained about taking anywhere between 30 minutes and two hours over the usual time to reach their destinations in the evening.
With more rain expected on Friday, a senior police officer advised commuters to check the Delhi Traffic Police’s Twitter and Facebook updates for information on roads with jams.