Intermittent downpour for the second consecutive day on Monday brought relief for Delhiites, but it also added to their Monday blues.
Puncturing tall claims of the civic agencies about the pre-monsoon preparedness, almost all major arterial roads in the city witnessed waterlogging for hours, resulting in heavy traffic jam on several roads across the city during the peak morning hours.
Traffic was heavily affected due to waterlogging and uprooting of trees at several places. The control room of the municipal corporations and Delhi traffic police received complaints of waterlogging both on arterial and colony roads from dozens of places across the city.
Waterlogging was reported from Mehrauli Badarpur road, Mathura road from CRRI to Ashram, Bhairon Marg, Mahipalpur Chowk towards Mehrauli, Dwarka underpass, Airport Road, Station Road in South Delhi; Moti Bagh, Brar Square, Dhaula Kuan, Azadpur and Model Town on Ring Road; Uttam Nagar and Paschim Vihar flyover in West Delhi; Burari and Nathurpura in North Delhi and Pandav Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Vikas Marg and Mother Dairy in East Delhi among others.
Even as the civic agencies continue to engage in blame game over desiltation of drains, Delhi traffic police said preventing waterlogging is the work of civic agencies and they had informed the agencies concerned about the vulnerable points in the city well in advance.
Meanwhile, the meteorological department has predicted more downpour in the next 24 hours. “The city received 58.5 mm of rain from 8.30 pm on Sunday to 8.30 am on Monday,” said an official with regional meteorological centre.
The rain, however, brought the minimum temperature five notches below average for this part of the year at 23.5 degrees Celsius. “The maximum and minimum temperature will stay around 34 and 23 degrees Celsius,” the official added.