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.

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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.

Flooded underpasses

After two years of remaining mostly dry and being removed from the “waterlogging hotspots”, the Minto Bridge underpass was flooded again on Friday morning. The area was barricaded and closed for traffic around 7am and remained closed till this report was filed.

Officials said that while at least three pumps were trying to drain out water, the water level continued to increase due to backflow from the sewer lines, from where excessive water is drained on the roads at three points.

“Two of our pumphouses there are completely submerged and water level is only rising as of now due to backflow from the adjacent sewer line. There are at least three pumps draining water as of now and more are being put in force,” said a PWD official.

In 2020, a truck driver had died at the spot after his truck got submerged in water, after which two drains were created for better drainage that had managed to keep the area relatively dry during the last two monsoons.

Meanwhile, the Tilak Bridge underpass was also closed for vehicles after it got submerged, causing heavy traffic snarls along most of central Delhi areas. Officials said that this happened after a drain wall collapsed, causing water to fill the underpass.

“A portion of the wall of the drain on the left side, when one comes from ITO towards Pragati Maidan, collapsed due to the rains. The drain then overflowed into the underpass. Water is being drained out using multiple pumps there,” another PWD official said.

The Badli underpass was the third to be closed for traffic in the morning hours after it saw heavy waterlogging, making it unsafe for commuters.

Officials said that Moolchand, Azadpur, Jakhira and Ashok Nagar underpasses also saw heavy waterlogging. The Azadpur underpass was closed for traffic after several vehicles broke down. The Pragati Maidan tunnel was closed for traffic around 10am as PWD officials said the tunnel entrances were flooded.