Rain forecast, chaos expected

NEW DELHI: With the weather department predicting rainfall in the Capital on Monday, the first day of the week is likely to open on a chaotic note.

NEW DELHI: With the weather department predicting rainfall in the Capital on Monday, the first day of the week is likely to open on a chaotic note.

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The unpreparedness of the city’s civic agencies was exposed over the weekend, with traffic snarls and instances of water-logging reported from many parts. Authorities face an uphill task on Monday, when a large number of office-goers are expected to swarm the roads in private vehicles. The places most likely to witness water-logging on Monday are Nawada, Kakrola, Defence Colony, Sangam Vihar, Okhla, Okhla Phase-2, Garhi, Nehru Place, Janakpuri, Naraina, Lajpat Nagar, Safdarjung, Dwarka, Dhaula Kuan, ITO, Vikas Marg, Akshardham, Geeta Colony, Minto Road, Chandni Chowk, ISBT Kashmiri Gate, Rohtash Nagar, Loni and Mandawli.

The Delhi Traffic Police have advised commuters to plan their route in advance, and avoid points that generally witness traffic jams or water-logging. “We will be deploying many of our personnel, and the focus will be on major water-logging points. We have already listed out 163 water-logging points and apprised the agencies concerned of the need to fix them,” said Sandeep Goel, special commissioner of police (traffic).

Traffic updates will be posted on Twitter and Facebook for maximum outreach among commuters, he added.

Two buses had broken down on flooded streets over the weekend, spurring the Delhi Transport Corporation to advise drivers against taking the vehicles into water-logged areas. Heavy rainfall on Saturday caused water-logging and traffic snarls at many places across the city, and a road cave-in was reported at Mahavir Nagar in West Delhi on Sunday morning.

Though Sunday only witnessed light showers, it still caused water-logging at several places. Just 14.8 mm of rain was recorded on Sunday, as compared to 65 mm the previous day.

According to the weatherman, this week will see less rain than the last. Light showers are expected on Monday as well as the next three days.

The previous week witnessed enough precipitation to compensate for Delhi’s rainfall deficiency. While the rainfall was 30% below normal at the beginning of last week, it now stands at 1% above normal.

The rain gods were much harsher on other parts of northern India, with at least 21 people dying in rain-related incidents over the last 24 hours. The worst affected were Uttarakhand, which witnessed the death of 10 people, and Madhya Pradesh, where the toll has already touched 35.