Waterlogging due to heavy rain in Delhi leads to traffic snarls; key roads affected

Parts of Delhi were submerged on Friday after a fresh spell of heavy rainfall lashed the national Capital causing huge traffic snarls and accidents in some areas.

Connaught Place, which usually remains dry, saw waterlogging on Friday during the morning hours.

ITO main roads saw knee-deep water tilla round 9am after which pumps were pressed into service.

Key areas of south Delhi including Vasant Kunj, Greater Kailash, New Friends Colony, Saket and Malviya Nagar saw waterlogging inside the residential areas as well as the arterial roads.

At Ekta Apartment on Press Enclave Road in Saket, water entered homes and people were seen draining it out using buckets and mugs.

“The drains are choked and water harvesting pits don’t work. So, all the water from the main road has entered our homes. My entire furniture is spoilt, carpets are wet, and the wooden flooring is making a squeaking noise because water has entered inside. Even the beds with storage have water inside and the stuff in them would be spoilt by now. We are paying one of the highest property taxes, and Saket is supposed to be well-off area, but this is the kind of work that authorities are doing,” said GL Verma, president of Ekta Apartment RWA.

In Rohini’s Sector 13, a small portion of a road caved in, and a parked car fell inside the ditch that was created.

In another similar incident in Timarpur, a car fell inside a pit created on an under-construction road.

Large parts of colonies and urban villages were also waterlogged with knee-deep water in Sarai Kale Khan, Jangpura, Wazirpur, Ashok Vihar, Laxmi Nagar, Dakshinpuri and Paschim Vihar.

“I have been receiving complaints from several areas where water has entered people’s homes and the entire road outside their homes in colonies and societies are submerged. It seems like the authorities had nothing this year and have been caught unawares by the rain. We are scared of the month ahead as monsoon has not even started yet,” said Chetan Sharma, chairman of Federation of GK-II complex RWAs and general secretary of Confederation of RWAs.

Traffic on the entire Outer Ring Road stretch was affected and vehicles were seen crawling due to waterlogging at various stretches including the Peeragarhi roundabout.

From Akshardham to Ghaziabad and the opposite carriageways, vehicles had to be diverted to other routes due to waterlogging near the Ghazipur border around Murga mandi.

Main road near Dhaula Kuan was waterlogged after the underpass got submerged. A similar situation was seen in areas around Dwarka as well.

“Most of the arterial stretches were waterlogged in the morning. However, over 200 large pumps and other smaller pumps have been deployed for draining out water. Several roads have been cleared now but most of the underpasses are still fully submerged along with some other low-lying areas,” an official from PWD said.