Sudden showers on late Thursday afternoon — after the mercury had touched a maximum of 43.2 degrees Celsius — provided much respite to Delhiites from the searing heat and humidity. But the accompanying dust storm left in its wake a trail of destruction in the form of uprooted trees and snapped power lines, which led to long outages in several parts of the city.
The minimum temperature dropped down to 25.7 degrees, two degrees below normal, due to the pre-monsoon showers.
Pleasing as it was for many who were seen getting wet deliberately, the accompanying thunder led to traffic challenges as it uprooted trees in many areas. Uprooted trees and electricity poles, and snapped power lines led to disruption in several areas such as Moti Bagh and Lodhi Colony. A few malfunctioning traffic lights added to the chaos.
Besides creating traffic problems, uprooted trees also disrupted power supply as a large number of electricity poles in many parts of the city were damaged due to the storm.
“The disruption in power supply also affected the functioning of the Nangloi Water Treatment Plant. Power and water supply have been partially affected. Restoration work is being undertaken at war-footing, but it may take some more time to restore normalcy,” a statement by Delhi Government said.
Stating that the reasons for disruption of water and power supply were “beyond our control,” the government statement assured that “the supply will become normal in a few hours”, while expressing regret for the inconvenience caused.
The monsoon is expected to hit the Capital on June 29.
