Traffic crawls on waterlogged roads

Traffic Police says situation could have been worse had it been a weekday

The Traffic Police said the situation could have been worse had it been a weekday.photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

The weather in the Capital, pleasant as it may be, is in no mood to give commuters any break from traffic congestion. Rain over the past few days scripted the same story of traffic snarls and harried commuters yet again on Saturday.

Traffic crawled on all the major arterial roads as heavy rain led to waterlogging across the city. The worst-hit was South and Outer Delhi, said the Traffic Police.

Residents and commuters faced a tough time as the mouth of flyovers, underpasses and low-lying localities such as Sangam Vihar were flooded due to waterlogging. One of the defining images of the day that summed up the commuter woes went viral was of vehicles wading through Aurobindo Marg near All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Traffic was thrown out of gear at Ashram-DND flyway, Moolchand underpass, Jasola, Badarpur, Panchsheel, Yusuf Sarai, Adhchini, South Extension and on several stretches of the circumferential Ring Road and Outer Ring Road.

A Traffic Police officer said that over a 1,000 calls were received from commuters by Saturday evening.

Officers, however, said the situation with the given amount of rain could have been worse had it been a weekday.

“Fortunately, it was a weekend and the water accumulated on major stretches had reduced significantly by the peak hours. Had it been a weekday, things would have gone worse. We are bracing for the days ahead,” said Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sandeep Goel.