Delhi Flooded: Heavy Rains Disrupt Normal Life in the Capital

Delhi experienced heavy rainfall early Thursday, causing widespread waterlogging and traffic chaos. Authorities issued advisories for key roads, with multiple areas affected. The downpour, attributed to various weather systems, has brought August's rainfall close to record levels. The IMD warns of potential further disruptions in the coming days.

 Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) received heavy showers early Thursday morning which caused waterlogging and traffic jams. The downpour was caused by the monsoon trough and active weather systems and led to advisories being issued to the public to avoid certain roads. 

 The Delhi Traffic Police received reports of waterlogging in many places such as Sarita Vihar, Qutub Minar Metro Station, Saket, Mukarba Chowk, Azadpur, Mahipalpur, and Mehrauli-Badarpur Road. The whole Rohtak Road from Nangloi to Tikri Border was flooded and there were reports of much damage and potholes due to the recurrent floods. 

 People were asked to avoid travelling through major roads such as GT Karnal Road, Mehrauli Badarpur Road and some parts of Outer Ring Road. The GGR Underpass and Ring Road under the Dhaula Kuan flyover, which is an important route to the airport, was also flooded even though there have been directions given to enhance the pumping capacity in view of similar problems last Friday. 

 The heavy rainfall also posed other challenges like several buses developing faults and many trees uprooted in different parts of the city including Vasant Vihar, RK Puram, Greater Kailash, Rohini Sector 15 and Aya Nagar. 

 All the weather stations in Delhi reported good amounts of rainfall. Safdarjung, which is considered as the weather representative of Delhi, recorded 77. 1mm in the preceding 24 hours to 8:30 am, with 63mm recorded between 2:30 and 5:30 am. Lodhi Road received even more, with 92. 2mm recorded. 

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 The IMD has attributed this intense rainfall to the western disturbance, cyclonic circulation over Uttar Pradesh and deep depression over Saurashtra in Gujarat which has led to increase in moisture in the region. 

 The IMD had earlier put out a yellow alert for Wednesday and Thursday, which means there could be disruptions in normal life. As for the rain spells, it is expected that there will be light to moderate rains but the intensity of the rains is expected to reduce on Friday and Saturday. 

 This August has been particularly wet for Delhi, with the month’s rainfall total reaching 378. 5mm, which is only 2mm less than the 378. 8mm in August 2012. The company’s average operating cycle was 62 days in the year ended 30 June 2013, which was 6 days shorter than the previous year’s 68 days. However, it is important to note that the recent record is still in August 2010 with 455. 1mm of rainfall.