Heavy rain in Noida lead to water-logging, traffic snarls; more rain likely Monday night

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), areas around Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad received the maximum amount of rainfall on Friday that could be around 60 to 70mm.

Noida, Ghaziabad and their adjoining regions saw heavy rainfall on Friday leading to drop in mercury while leaving several areas waterlogged.

Weather analysts have said that while the region will continue to get light, patchy rains over the next few days, a similar spell of moderate to heavy rainfall is however expected towards the intervening night of August 31 and September 1. (Virendra Singh Gosain/HT file photo)

A number of places in Noida saw water logging and heavy traffic around the afternoon hours. As the rain started in the morning hours, around 9.30am, lasting at some areas till as late as 4pm, a number of roads in areas including sectors 63, 43, 16, and Bhangel, including parts and patches of road along Vishwakarma road near sector 76, were water logged.

“I had to go to my office in Sector 16. Though not all areas were waterlogged, a number of patches along the road, including the Vishwakarma road, were full of water causing traffic jams as people drove slowly. A patch of road near Sector 50 metro station is also broken and there are some potholes, due to which it’s unsafe to drive over when the road is waterlogged as you never know when your vehicle might get stuck,” said Kartik Sharma, a resident of Sector 76, Noida.

“The problem is that the road towards Sector 50 on the Vishwakarma Marg is low while the drains are at a certain height. So they always get waterlogged during heavy rains. There are also some craters and potholes on the road, making it unsafe to ride along such roads,” said Ankit Mishra, a resident of Sector 77.

The expressway along Delhi also experienced traffic congestion due to rains towards morning hours near Sector 15-A to a few kilometres around 11am, and lasted for a few hours.

“There were a few snarls in the morning but we were prepared so they did not extend much. However, we can’t help the waterlogging. Even so, there was no requirement of making special diversions on Friday and traffic was comparatively smoother than previous heavy rain days,” said Ganesh Saha, deputy commissioner of police, traffic, Gautam Budh Nagar.

EXPECT ANOTHER SPELL NEXT WEEK

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), areas around Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad received the maximum amount of rainfall on Friday that could be around 60 to 70mm. Weather analysts have said that while the region will continue to get light, patchy rains over the next few days, a similar spell of moderate to heavy rainfall is however expected towards the intervening night of August 31 and September 1.

“The maximum and most intense rainfall had been reported from areas around Noida, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida. Though the actual figures would be available only by Saturday, it seems the rainfall would have been around or above 60 to 70 mm. The mercury has dropped, however, and will stay low for a few days. A similar spell of rain is expected in the region between August 31 and September 1,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, IMD.

According to the analyst, the reasons behind the deluge was favourable weather conditions that formed as a monsoon line of trough – the low-pressure line that oscillates around Delhi and causes rains as it passes over the region – met at the convergence of moist winds from Arabian sea and Bay of Bengal.

“The cumulative effect of this led to heavy rains,” said Srivastava.

Rainfall below 15mm is considered light, between 15 and 64.5 mm is moderate and above 64.5mm is heavy. So far, Noida has seen an average rainfall of 65mm (since June 1), which is still 85% deficit.

The mercury fell Friday to a maximum of 32.8 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season’s average, against 34.2 a day earlier. The minimum temperature, meanwhile, was recorded at 26.8 degrees, against 26.2 degrees Celsius a day earlier.