Traffic crawled as roads turned rivers in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Traffic crawled across the city after Delhi witnessed heavy rain on Sunday morning. While residents dealt with waterlogging and choked drains across the city, PWD and the corporations continued their blame game over drainage.
South Delhi was among the worst affected areas with waterlogging in Defence Colony, near AIIMS flyover, Lajpat Nagar, South Extension, Moolchand, Rao Tula Ram Marg flyover, Munirka flyover and on MB Road.
Several people were left stranded at bus stops and Metro stations after clogged drains led to waterlogging. "Every year the situation is the same. I don’t know who is responsible but it is making it difficult for people to go about their day," said Akash Sharma, an IT professional who was stuck at east Delhi’s Nirman Vihar Metro station for over 20 minutes.
Officials from the three municipal corporations and PWD claimed that pumps were installed in areas where waterlogging was reported almost immediately. "We deployed pumps at sensitive points. Drains got choked temporarily as they could not take the water load," said a senior South Corporation official.
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Other areas that witnessed waterlogging include Goyala Deenpur market, Dhaula Kuan flyover, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Laxmi Nagar, Azad Market, Netaji Subhash Place and Dwarka Link Road.
"Drains on NH-8 were also blocked. Ten people and two maintenance vans were deployed to keep things under control," said a PWD official.
South Delhi also recorded the maximum number of incidents of trees falling at 17; eight such incidents were also reported in north Delhi. However, no one was injured though minor traffic disruptions were caused in some areas.
Traffic police officials said that vehicles crawled on most stretches but no major jams were reported as it was a weekend Disruptions were cleared as soon as possible, said a traffic police officer.