Delhi traffic crawls as city receives maximum rain in 10 years

According to Skymet, highest rainfall of 144 mm has been recorded in a span of 24 hours during the last 10 years in Delhi

Ripple effect of massive gridlock in Gurgaon due to flooding of streets continued to be felt in the national capital with several areas witnessing crawling traffic in the city which received highest rainfall in 10 years, making life difficult for motorists.

According to Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency, highest rainfall of 144 mm has been recorded in a span of 24 hours during the last 10 years.

Palam Observatory recorded whopping 144 mm of rain in a span of 24 hours from 5.30 pm on Friday out of which 80 mm of rains were recorded in a span of mere three hours from 5.30 am to 8.30 am on Saturday.

Prior to this, the record stood at 126 mm of rain on July 28, 2009.

The downpour triggered traffic snarls at various intersections and busy roundabouts including ITO and Dhaula Kuan.

Vehicles moved at a snail's pace on several roads such as Mahipalpur Chowk, Rangpuri U-turn near Radisson hotel, Vayusenabad, Azad Market Chowk, causing hardship to the commuters.

"It takes usually 25 minutes to travel from Defence Colony to Dhaulakuan but today I have been stranded for over one and half hour," a distressed commuter said.

Delhi Traffic Police took to micro-blogging site Twitter to caution commuters of congestion due to waterlogging and said the situation is likely to continue till Saturday.

However, the roads connecting Delhi and Gurgaon on which long tailbacks were witnessed over past two days due to severe waterlogging on NH-8, witnessed better traffic movement on Saturday.

An official in the Central Water Commission said the possibility of Yamuna crossing the warning level was low and there was no reason to worry.

"The water level was recorded at 202.98 metres today. It had reached upto 203.8 around 7 pm yesterday," the official said.

The corresponding warning and danger levels are 204 and 204.83 metres respectively.

Rains provided relief from sweltering heat, and the humidity levels oscillated between 87-100 per cent.

"The maximum temperature was recorded at 30 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal while the minimum settled at 25 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal for this time of the year," a MeT official said.

The weatherman has predicted that rains will continue.

According to Skymet Weather, these rains can be attributed to the monsoon trough which is running in close proximity of Delhi-NCR.

"A cyclonic circulation is also marked over Haryana and adjoining areas. Moreover, the Western Disturbance is also moving across Jammu and Kashmir," it said.

"As we proceed further, Monsoon trough will be now oscillating towards north, while the circulation is now prevailing over Haryana and Delhi. Both the systems will continue to give good Monsoon rains over Delhi," it added.