Delhiites face tough time as traffic snarls; blame game ensues

Traffic woes gave a harrowing time to commuters in the national capital today as heavy rainfall led to water-logging in several areas and long tailbacks of vehicles on major roads, while a blame game ensued among the civic agencies over a lack of preparation for the monsoon.
Several parts of the city were heavily inundated but South Delhi was among the worst-hit and reeled under severe traffic congestion.
Residents and commuters faced a tough time as the mouth of flyovers, underpasses and low-lying localities such as Sangam Vihar were flooded due to water-logging.
"Fortunately, it was a weekend and the water accumulated on major stretches had reduced significantly by the peak hours. Had it been a weekday, things would have gone worse," Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sandeep Goel said.

Traffic was thrown out of gear near AIIMS, IIT-Delhi, Ashram-DND flyway, Moolchand underpass, Jasola, Badarpur, Panchsheel, Yusuf Sarai, Adhchini, South Extension and on several stretches of the circumferential Ring Road.
Amid the troubles faced by Delhiites, BJP-led municipal corporations and the Public Works Department, which is under the AAP government, traded charges over desilting of drains.

Leader of the House in South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Subhash Arya claimed the civic body had cleaned all drains under its jurisdiction while the problem was due to uncleaned drains falling under the jurisdiction of the PWD.
"All the (drains) under SDMC have been properly cleaned and silt had also been removed. The bigger drains, which the smaller ones ultimately join, fall under the jurisdiction of PWD and they were not desilted, and turned out to be the major cause of waterlogging," he said.

North Delhi Mayor Sanjeev Nayyar also blamed the PWD for the chaos caused by waterlogging.
Commuters, who tried to take diversions from the arterial stretches, ended up being stranded in areas like Safdarjung Enclave, Defence Colony and Lodhi Colony, said a transport department official.
"Despite the large claims of all the three Municipal
Corporations that they had completed the pre-Monsoon desilting work, it was seen that a lot of silt was coming from the municipal corporation drains, thus reducing the capacity of the PWD drains, resulting in overflowing of the drains and causing water-logging at many places," the official added.

However, the SDMC claimed that it had removed nearly 44,000 metric-tonne of silt from 265 drains wider than four feet and around 29,000 metric-tonne from over 18,000 nallahs (drains less then four feet width) before monsoon.
Water-logging at the mouth of the Indraprastha Flyover continued till noon, due to which the traffic coming from Rajghat and the elevated Ring Road had to be diverted. The problem was caused by sewer leakage, which appropriate civic bodies should look into, the official said.
The major road stretches that witnessed traffic snarls for long hours include the Ring Road stretch near Sarai Kale Khan, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, Aurobindo Marg, the Outer Ring Road stretch covering Hauz Khas, Greater Kailash, Nehru Place and Modi Mill, and Mathura Road, officials said.

Other parts of the city which witnessed chock-a-block due to water-logging included central Delhi areas like Paharganj and IP Estate; north Delhi areas like Malka Ganj, Bara Hindu Rao, Baraf Khana and Azad Market; areas in West Delhi included Naraina and Punjabi Bagh; and near Delhi Secretariat, Vikas Marg, Nand Nagri and Anand Vihar in the east.