NEW DELHI: Heavy overnight rain lashed Delhi and continued through Thursday morning, inundating roads, uprooting trees and causing massive traffic snarls across the city.According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Safdarjung, the city’s base weather station, recorded 72.6 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Thursday.Among all monitoring stations, Tukhmirpur in northeast Delhi received the highest rainfall at 160 mm, followed by Mayur Vihar with 103 mm. Delhi University recorded 90 mm, Mehrauli 86 mm, Pusa and Lodhi Road AWS 83 mm each, Lodhi Road 80 mm, Ridge 78 mm and Chhatarpur 72 mm.Other areas also witnessed substantial rainfall, with Palam and Narayana recording 63 mm each, Janakpuri 62 mm, Ayanagar 57 mm, Pragati Maidan 50 mm, Najafgarh 43 mm, Mungeshpur 41 mm, Jharoda Kalan 33 mm and Jafarpur 6 mm.The downpour triggered widespread waterlogging in several parts of the capital, including Vikas Marg, east Delhi, New Delhi Railway Station, Munirka, Sadar Bazar and Dwarka, while traffic moved at a crawl on the Delhi-Noida Expressway.In Jangpura, roads were submerged under knee-deep water, forcing pedestrians to wade through flooded streets and two-wheeler riders to push their vehicles.The rain also uprooted trees at multiple locations. According to the Delhi Fire Service, two trees fell on Raja Dhir Singh Marg in East of Kailash—one near the ISKCON Temple and another outside the National Heart Institute—disrupting traffic.Several residents shared images and videos of flooded roads and traffic jams on social media as the city grappled with the impact of the heavy rain.Officials said teams from the Public Works Department (PWD), the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) were deployed across the capital on the directions of Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to tackle waterlogging and ensure smooth traffic movement. They maintained that conditions on major roads remained under control despite the heavy rainfall.The IMD said the minimum temperature settled at 24.3 degrees Celsius, 3.6 degrees below normal. It has forecast generally cloudy skies along with moderate to heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and lightning through the day.Meteorologists attributed the persistent rainfall over the past two days to the monsoon trough shifting northwards from central India towards the Himalayan foothills. They said Delhi is likely to continue receiving widespread rain until the weather system moves further north, after which rainfall activity is expected to ease. (With PTI inputs)
