Heavy rain pours misery on commuters, triggers a wall collapse, but Minto bridge stands tall

Delhi woke up to heavy rain on Wednesday morning that led to waterlogged roads and major snarls in several parts of the city. It also triggered a school wall collapse damaging several cars, but surprisingly, decades-old Minto Bridge fared better this time with hardly any water-logging.

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While the showers that continued till late evening came as a respite to residents from the muggy weather -- the city’s maximum temperature fell to 27.7 degrees Celsius, six degrees below normal -- it spelt bad news for office goers, who were caught in jams on waterlogged roads.

Delhi traffic police officers said jams were reported from Dwarka Link Road, Barapullah, Rao Tula Ram Marg, Moti Bagh intersection, South Extension (Ring Road), Ashram intersection, Delhi-Noida-Direct Flyway, Noida Link Road and Vikas Marg.

Traffic crawled at a snail’s pace near Dhaula Kuan towards Gyarah Murti, Surajmal Marg, Bhairon Marg, near Sultanpur Metro station on MB Road, near Munirka Metro station, Sanjay T-point towards Rao Tula Ram Marg, Civil Lines police station towards Mall Road, Mathura Road, Chandgiram Akhara Road, Rani Jhansi Road and Mayur Vihar phase-2 underpass.

Traffic from Vasant Kunj to the airport was diverted towards Mahipalpur Chowk because of knee-deep water on the stretch. Vehicles were also diverted away from Pul Prahladpur underpass that got inundated.

“Portions of roads were under water, slowing down traffic on arterial stretches. Our personnel were stationed to direct traffic, but in many areas, the situation was quite bad,” said a senior Delhi traffic police officer, requesting anonymity.

Even residential colonies of Krishna Nagar, parts of Amar Colony, Model Town, Prem Nagar in Kirari, Sant Nagar and Laxmi Vihar in Burari, and Rajiv Nagar in Begampur, among others, were inundated.

“It doesn’t look like we are living in the national capital. Every year, we suffer the pain of water-logging. It’s been raining since morning and the colony streets are under water, because of choked drains and sewer lines,” said BS Vohra, a resident of Krishna Nagar and the president East Delhi RWAs Joint Front.

According to the Delhi traffic police, civic bodies and road owning agencies, water-logging was reported from over 45 locations in the city. The public works department (PWD) maintained that adequate arrangements were in place to drain the accumulated water.

“Temporary pumps have been installed at waterlogged streets to clear roads. Our staff are in the field to constantly monitor and immediately address the water-logging issues,” a senior PWD official said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) data shows that till 5.30 pm, Safdarjung observatory, which is taken as representative of the city, recorded 32mm of rain, Palam observatory 49.4mm rain and Lodi Road 25.1mm rain. Aya Nagar received 66.1mm rain while Ridge recorded 42.7mm rain.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’s regional weather forecasting centre, said the axis of the monsoon will remain close to Delhi-NCR till Thursday. He said south-westerly winds from the Arabian Sea and south-easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal were also adding to moisture in this region, which was causing the downpour.

“We will continue to receive spells of heavy rain till Thursday,” he said.

At least seven parked cars were damaged after a portion of the boundary wall of Apeejay School in Saket’s Block J collapsed in the rain, said deputy commissioner of police (south) Atul Kumar Thakur. Nobody was hurt, he added.

Delhi Fire Services officials said it received a call at 11.46am and dispatched two rescue teams. “The debris removal operation is on,” a fire officer said.

Residents lodged a police complaint and demanded that school authorities compensate them for the damages.

Meanwhile, Minto Bridge near Connaught Place, a rail underpass known for going under water every time it rains, saw no water-logging on Wednesday, largely due to prompt response from the authorities.

On July 19 this year, a heavy spell of rain had inundated the underpass; a bus was submerged and a 56-year-old driver of a mini-truck had drowned.

After the incident, the PWD and the Delhi traffic police took a number of measures, including installing a monitoring system, additional pumps and imposing restrictions on traffic flow, all of which seems to have paid off.