New Delhi: Heavy rains lashed Delhi for the seventh consecutive day Wednesday resulting in endless traffic snarls with knee-deep water on major roads and flooded train tracks leading to some trains being delayed.
School children, office goers and even train passengers had a harrowing time as traffic crawled. The Chandigarh Shatabdi Express, for instance, was delayed for hours.
"We are stuck near Sabzi Mandi. There is a lot of water ahead of us on tracks. The Jhelum Express is standing ahead of us. We have no idea when we will reach the New Delhi station," Amit Aggarwal, a passenger in the Chandigarh Shatabdi, told IANS.
Delhi Traffic Police reported jams from Mathura Road, Bahadur Shah Zafar Road, Nizamuddin Road, Ring Road, Pandara Road, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, I.T.O. and Rao Tula Ram Marg.
Dwarka, Dhaula Kuan and the Minto Road underpasses and other low lying areas were flooded, resulting in utter chaos.
"Traffic has been diverted from Rajghat crossing towards Delhi Gate due to heavy waterlogging between Rajghat and Indraprastha flyover," said a traffic official.
The national capital received 9.3 mm of rainfall from Tuesday morning till 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. A total of 701.6 mm of rain has been received so far during this monsoon, 43 percent above average.
The month of August alone has recorded 444 mm of rains so far - the highest in 10 years.
The weather office predicted more rains during the day.
"The skies will remain cloudy and some parts of the city are expected to get one or two spells of rainfall or thundershowers. Some may be heavy," said an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 25.3 degrees Celsius, a notch below the normal for this time of the season, while the maximum is expected to hover around 31.7 degrees, the official said.
The humidity levels were on the higher side with the maximum and minimum being recorded at 95 percent and 77 percent respectively.
The Yamuna also continued to flow above the danger mark and more people were evacuated from low-lying areas.
IANS
