15 minutes of rain

Aah! The rain’ soon turned into ‘oh! the rain’ for Delhiites on Thursday as soon as they stepped on to the roads and their smiles simply disappeared from their faces, reports HT Correspondent.

Aah! The rain’ soon turned into ‘oh! the rain’ for Delhiites on Thursday. Even as the temperature came down and a pleasant weather greeted them, the smiles disappeared from their faces as soon as they stepped on to the roads.

HT Image

As usual, waterlogging and traffic jams took the charm out of the monsoon season once again. Bad roads coupled with waterlogging and non-functional traffic signals led to massive pile-ups on several roads across the capital. The stretch from Vikas Marg Chungi to ITO witnessing the worst congestion of the day and traffic jam lasted there for over four hours on Thursday.

With 19 mm of rainfall from 8.30 am till evening, it was a nightmare for commuters. “It took me over an hour to reach ITO from Karkari Mod. The vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace and I missed an important appointment at CP at 4 pm,” said Nazma. She travels between Karkari Mod and CP via ITO everyday.

Waterlogging at Raj Ghat and under IP flyover — the signal at Raj Ghat too had gone bust — added to the massive jam near ITO.

The pile-up on the Ring Road was, however, there since the morning peak hours. “I started from Mayur Vihar to reach Barakhamba Road at 11 am. The signals near IP Park and the one at Ring Road - Bhairon Marg T-point were not working. I finally reached Barakhamba Road at 12.45 pm,” said Jahnvhi Banerjee.

It took Shiv Singhania approximately 55 minutes to cross a 5-km-stretch between Indirapuram and Ghazipur crossing before 12 noon. “The problem was aggravated as trucks occupied one side of the road and the other was waterlogged. These trucks were held till Wednesday due to the movement of kanwarias on that road,” he said.

Vikas Marg and NH 24 were, however, not the only areas to have come to a halt due to waterlogging on Thursday. Areas under the flyover also fell prey to heavy rain. Some of the most affected were the Mayapuri flyover, Dhaula Kuan and the Moolchand underpass.