Heavy rain brings city to standstill
Barely a couple of centimetres of rain in the city since Wednesday morning was enough to catch the residents, the traffic police and all the other civic agencies hopelessly off guard all across the city. More than 100 complaints of waterlogging, traffic snarls from virtually all corners of the city and reports of earth and road caving in at busy intersection like AIIMS left the residents filled with despair. At least 13 trees also got uprooted.
The worst affected were those caught in the rush hour on Wednesday evening. Right from the Expressway from Gurgaon to New Delhi (and New Delhi to Gurgaon), the S.P. Mukherjee Marg, the Dhaula Kuan intersection, the AIIMS flyover, Hauz Khas, Green Park, Mandi House, ITO to several areas in Rohini and west zones of the MCD, the traffic moved at snail’s pace. Several traffic signals went on the blink. At quite a few intersections, the traffic policemen were nowhere to be seen. Traffic was also disrupted on DND due to rain and heavy rush. However, Delhi police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said that the traffic policemen were getting the roads cleared as soon as possible. “There were reports of heavy congestion at Dhaula Kuan and Wazirpur, besides the Ring Road. While the traffic on Ring Road has more or less been cleared, it is taking some time to clear jams at the other two places. It will be done soon,” he said.
However, those caught on the road had a different story to tell. “It took me three hours to reach Patel Chowk from Gurgaon border. Normally, it should not have taken more than 30 minutes. Crossing even a kilometre of stretch on the S.P. Marg took me more than an hour,” said an employee in a private firm.
Those looking for buses and autorickshaws had to be content with taking detours or walking down the “last mile” as the traffic simply would not move. “Had I continued walking, I could have reached my home in east of Kailash (EOK) from Moolchand earlier than I did trying to find an autorickshaw. They were all stuck,” said Praween K., a resident of C-Block in EOK.
As per the MCD control room, there were 102 complaints of waterlogging till afternoon. Meanwhile, there were at least three incidents of road caving-in. One was in Naraina, where the road caved in nearly eight feet, while the other was near AIIMS intersection as a result of which the road had to be blocked.
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