Waterlogging is here to spoil the party

Apart from the summer woes of Delhiites, the rain today washed out the tall claims made by the civic bodies of clean stormwater drains. Several areas, including arterial roads, reported waterlogging.

Apart from the summer woes of Delhiites, the rain on Sunday washed out the tall claims made by the civic bodies of clean stormwater drains. Several areas, including arterial roads, reported waterlogging.

But since it was a Sunday, the traffic snarls were not too ugly and vehicular movement was thin. But it could be an altogether different story during the Monday rush.

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A number of cars broke down on the roads as rain started pouring early morning. Within half an hour, a large number of roads were choked.

Though the three municipal corporations claimed that they had received only a few waterlogging complaints, the situation on the ground was much worse.

Several stretches across Moolchand, Lodhi Road, BRT Corridor, Dhaula Kuan, Green Park, Nehru Place, Malviya Nagar, Adchini, Safdarjang Encalve, Green Park, Prahlad Pur flyover, MB Road and Mathura Road were affected due to waterlogging.

The Delhi Traffic Police blamed the choked stormwater drains and sewer lines for the traffic snarls. Traffic jams were reported from the Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Airport and MB Road.

The civic bodies had claimed that by June 4, they had almost finished the job of cleaning the drains or desilting. But it took just one spell of rain to expose the truth. Officials said one round of desilting has already been completed and they are now doing the regular cleaning. But all they would be cleaning now is the same silt that they had removed earlier. The removed silt was left near the drains, which made its way back into the drains after the rain.

Apart from the three civic bodies, the PWD is also responsible for the maintenance of drains on several arterial roads. Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit had recently directed these agencies to gear up to deal with monsoon.