New Delhi:
Hours of heavy rain turned a number of of Delhi’s arterial and connecting roads into choke factors on Friday, with waterlogged stretches, fallen bushes and lengthy visitors queues slowing motion throughout massive elements of the nationwide capital.
From Mahipalpur and Dhaula Kuan to MB Street, Ring Street, ITO and elements of east Delhi, commuters confronted extended delays as a number of bottlenecks emerged nearly concurrently.
By the top of the day, the scale of the disruption was displaying up in criticism registers too.
The Public Works Division (PWD) acquired 66 complaints of waterlogging and 17 complaints of fallen bushes, whereas the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) acquired 15 waterlogging complaints and 15 tree-fall complaints.
That meant 81 waterlogging calls and 32 complaints of fallen bushes throughout the 2 companies alone.
South Delhi Bears The Brunt
South and southeast Delhi had been among the many worst-hit elements of the town.
Waterlogging was reported from Mahipalpur, Chhatarpur, Okhla, Sangam Vihar, Sainik Farms, Vasant Kunj, Vasant Vihar, Malviya Nagar and Larger Kailash-II, amongst different areas.
The Mehrauli-Badarpur Street emerged as one of many main bother spots, with visitors slowing sharply as water collected on elements of the stretch.
Commuters travelling via Khanpur, Sangam Vihar, Deoli and Ambedkar Nagar additionally confronted delays.
At Mahipalpur and on roads main in direction of Dhaula Kuan, lengthy queues shaped because the rain coincided with peak visitors hours.
One Jam Leads To One other
The issue quickly moved past particular person waterlogged roads.
Visitors slowed on elements of Ring Street, NH-48 and Mathura Street, whereas congestion was additionally reported round Dhaula Kuan, Ashram, ITO and several other central Delhi stretches.
The Gurugram-Dhaula Kuan route, one of many busiest entry corridors into Delhi, noticed lengthy queues of autos.
With a number of key roads choking on the identical time, motorists attempting to keep away from one jam typically bumped into one other.
East Delhi was affected too.
Waterlogging and sluggish visitors had been reported from elements of Shakarpur, Mandawali, Mayur Vihar, Gandhi Nagar and Krishna Nagar, including to the record of bottlenecks throughout the town.
Extra Than 100 mm Rain In Some Areas
The visitors chaos got here after an intense spell of rainfall, significantly over south Delhi.
Between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm on Friday, Pushp Vihar recorded 111.5 mm of rain, whereas Chhatarpur acquired 104.5 mm.
Ayanagar recorded 87.4 mm, Palam 73.5 mm, Janakpuri 68 mm, Pusa 59.5 mm and Safdarjung 57.3 mm throughout the identical interval.
The heavy downpour meant drains and roads in some elements of the town needed to take care of a big quantity of water inside a comparatively quick interval.
“Wherever Work Is Going On, There Will Be Issues”: Parvesh Verma
Delhi PWD Minister Parvesh Verma mentioned most of the areas the place issues had been being reported had been areas the place drainage or different infrastructure work was underway.
Responding to the Opposition’s allegations over waterlogging, Mr Verma mentioned, “There are a lot of locations in Delhi the place our work is happening, the place new drain works are occurring, the place many different works are occurring. So, wherever the work will go on, there will probably be issues.”
He additionally accused the Opposition of circulating movies of issues that, in response to him, predated the present authorities.
“The movies the Opposition is sharing aren’t about right now’s issues. They’re highlighting points that remained unresolved throughout their very own 10 or 11 years in energy,” he mentioned.
The Delhi authorities has maintained that a number of conventional waterlogging hotspots have carried out higher this monsoon after drainage and desilting work.
Mr Verma has additionally pointed to stretches reminiscent of Minto Bridge and different historically weak underpasses to argue that preparedness measures are displaying outcomes.
However Friday’s rain produced a distinct problem.
As an alternative of 1 or two acquainted flooding hotspots bringing visitors to a halt, waterlogging and congestion surfaced throughout a number of corridors without delay, turning Delhi’s street community right into a collection of choke factors via the day.
