For the second consecutive day, sudden and heavy rain threw traffic out of gear throughout the day with water-logging on arterial roads leading to gridlocks and jams.
According to the traffic police, water-logging triggered congestion on arterial routes such as Wazirabad Road, the stretch from Nizamuddin to the National Highway-24 towards Noida, ITO and Outer Ring Road.
Areas such as Malviya Nagar, Lawrence Road, Minto Road, stretches near the Interstate Bus Terminal in Kashmere Gate, Adchini, Nehru Place, and near the Indian Institute of Technology in Munirka saw congestion as well. “It took me two hours to drive down from my residence in Noida to my office in Connaught Place in the morning and more than that due to the sudden downpour in the evening,” said Ajay Khanna, 25, a software consultant.
Kanika Sharma, 30, an ad executive, said, “The most inconvenience that motorists faced was in the evening; not only were the streetlights switched off even on arterial routes in New Delhi, but especially on stretches such as Ring Road. Drivers had no option other than using their judgement instead of their eyes to manoeuvre .”
The traffic police said complaints were also received from commuters headed towards and from the Indira Gandhi International Airport; while the volume of traffic was heavy on the National Highway-8, diversions had to be put in place for vehicles coming from the IGI due to water-logging on the pot-holed Mehrauli-Mahipalpur stretch. The municipal corporations continued to get complaints of fallen trees and water-logging caused by rainfall throughout Monday. A total of 27 water-logging complaints and 10 pertaining to fallen trees were received by the zonal control rooms of the three corporations. Even the office of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate in Geeta Colony had to register a water-logging complaint with the EDMC.
