Heavy rains on Thursday cool Delhi, but lead to traffic jams

Heavy rain in Delhi on Thursday brought a welcome drop in temperature with the maximum settling at the average for the season at 35.4 degrees Celsius, but also meant nightmare journeys for residents as residents crawled back home from work on waterlogged roads. More rain is likely on Friday.

Traffic jams were reported across the city, and an officer-goer headed to Gurgaon said a 450 metre drive in south Delhi's Greater Kailash took an hour.

Micro-blogging site Twitter buzzzed with complaints and traffic advise, with people sharing photos of flooded roads. Some complained directly to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

"Crawling on SP (Sardar Patel) Marg.....traffic woes in the rain, so much for the planning and preparations by Delhi Govt. foresight is only on elections," Nischal Sood tweeted.

"The waterlogged, traffic jammed mess that is Delhi, and its barely the first rain of the season. #IncredibleIndia," Chandan Deep tweeted.

"Slow moving traffic on Nh 24 near Akahardham because of the rain. #Delhi @dtptraffic," another twitter handler Rhythmnguitars tweeted.

The impact of the rain and consequent waterlogging so close to rush hour was also evident in the movement of traffic, with hours-long traffic jams reported many parts of the city, which had woken up to a partly cloudy Thursday morning with the minimum temperature recorded at 27.4 degrees Celsius, average for the season.

Similar weather is likely on Friday, said the weather office.

"Generally cloudy sky with rain and thundershowers likely to occur on Friday," said an official of the India Meteorological Department.

The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 32 and 26 degrees Celsius.

--IANS

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