Traffic snarls as heavy rains lash Delhi, NCR

Heavy rains lashed several parts of Delhi and its suburbs on Monday as the skies in the region remained engulfed in dark clouds with predictions of more rain in the coming days.

The downpour caused water-logging in parts of the Delhi-NCR region leaving many roads, lanes and bylanes flooded with rainwater.

The morning commuters had a tough time reaching their destinations due to traffic congestion at several crowded junctions in Delhi and Noida.

Twitter and other social media channels were flooded with complaints of vehicles getting stuck in bumper to bumper traffic jams.

"Rains in Noida have gone bonkers this morning, have had to drive like a snail," Twitter user Aahna Sharma posted on the microblogging site.

Anurag Dutta, who works with a Noida-based publishing house, told IANS: "The Rajnigandha crossing (near Sector 16 Noida) is flooded with knee-deep water. Vehicles hardly moved for a long time and I reached office late."

In Delhi, commuters complained of heavy traffic congestion in Lakshmi Nagar, Geeta Colony, Patparganj, Lajpat Nagar, Old Delhi railway station, Yusuf Sarai, Dhaula Kuan, Rajouri Garden. At Ashram, several vehicles were stuck in the carriageway towards AIIMS.

The heavy rain also led to a drop in mercury from 29 degrees Celsius around 10 a.m. to 26 degrees in the afternoon.

"Now, the good news is that these rains are here to stay as showers of varying intensity are likely to continue for another 2-3 days," Skymet said in its weather report.

The region received above normal rain in August and has been seeing widespread rainfall since the beginning of September.

The rains have been attributed to the cyclonic circulation over Haryana and adjoining areas, along with the axis of the monsoon trough which is seen in close proximity to Delhi and its suburbs.

"We expect similar weather conditions to prevail for the next few days. We can say that more rains are likely in the coming few days. In fact, heavy rain is expected over parts of Delhi-NCR during the next 24 hours (from Monday morning onwards)," Skymet said.

The monsoon trough is expected to shift slightly southwards before the weekend and accordingly rainfall activity will also reduce in Delhi.

The minimum temperature in Delhi was recorded at 25.6 degrees Celsius early on Monday morning, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Sunday's maximum temperature was recorded at 28 degrees Celsius, six notches below the season's average, while the minimum temperature settled at 26 degrees Celsius, the season's average.

--IANS

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