NEW DELHI: The heavy spell of monsoon, which regained strength on Friday evening, caused
waterlogging and traffic snarls at several locations in the city on Saturday.
Several busy roads and prominent locations such as AIIMS, Dhaulakuan to Gurugram stretch, Moolchand, WHO Building at ITO, Dwarka underpass, Bijwaswan flyover, Pul Prahaladpur, Kashmere Gate Metro Station, Azadpur underpass market faced flooding.
Minto Bridge, which was recently publicised by the AAP government as a success story of solving waterlogging issues in the city, and the recently redeveloped 1.3 km stretch at Chandini Chowk experienced heavy flooding.
The Minto Bridge, a hotspot of waterlogging in the city, had not witnessed any issues during the previous spells this year and the officials patted their backs saying their efforts succeeded. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also announced that his government would implement the “Minto Bridge drainage model” in other places to avoid waterlogging. However, it seems the much-hyped model had a washout on Saturday.
“Traffic movement on Minto Bridge (both carriageway) has been closed due to waterlogging. Please avoid the stretch,” tweeted Delhi Traffic Police. Besides, 1.5 feet waterlogging was observed at Azadpur Market underpass and was closed for traffic. Several other routes were also closed due to flooding.
According to complaint statistics of PWD, the department has received 645 complaints regarding waterlogging and 467 complaints related to potholes in August alone. In July, the total figure was 1,140.
Several commuters took to Twitter and posted pictures and videos of waterlogging. Water also
entered the IP Estate Police Station.
Several posh colonies were flooded and in low lying areas such as Sangam Vihar people were seen using plastic boats to cross the roads. The PWD which looks after 1,200 km roads in the city said, “It was unpredicted rain but our engineers and officials were present on the ground. The waterlogging was drained out by the staff immediately.”
North MCD deploys field staff, pumps
North MCD said it confronted waterlogging by ensuring full attendance of field staff and using pumps. Unprecedented rain matched by unprecedented efforts, it claimed