Rain hits rush hour traffic; helpline stays unreachable

Day long heavy shower in the Capital on Tuesday might have brought relief to the citizens but caused severe traffic snarls on many roads. While the social media was flooded with traffic complaints, Delhi Police Traffic helpline was not reachable.

The sky was cloudy from the early morning with the minimum temperature recorded as 26.6 degree Celsius, much lower than the average.

The Safdarjung observatory received 3.3 mm rainfall till this morning in the last 24 hours. The temperature of the day also settled within 30-32 plummeting from the scorching 38-39 degree.

Many important roads and residential areas became water-logged due to heavy shower.

The traffic on the GT Road near Shastri Park came to a halt due to rain. Traffic was also very slow in important places like ITO, Cannaught Place, Mayur Vihar, Ashram among others.

Traffic was stuck at Teen-murti Circle for more than an hour and police were allegedly not present at the spot.

Movement of vehicles was also slow at Malviya Nagar, Munrika, and Hauz Khas, leaving office and school goers stuck in massive jams.

However, the traffic police helpline was not reachable. The social media sites were flooded with complaints of traffic jam at various places and people there also requested to the police for help.

While the citizens complaint against the poor traffic management in the city, no updates of jam was there at Delhi Traffic Police's twitter handle.

The MeT Department foretasted that heavy shower will be continued for the last 72 hours.

Rains occurred in Delhi including the nearby areas such as Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad and Ghaziabad. Heavy showers are likely to end after Friday, but medium showers will continue.

Humidity was recorded to be in the last 24 hours, between 65 and 97 per cent.

The MeT department noted that next week, the monsoon trough is likely to shift towards the north, leading to increased rainfall.

Last week, the city saw 14.7 mm of rainfall, according to the data of MeT Department.

DTC buses and other vehicles were reportedly broke down at many places due to heavy rain causing more congestion.

Many vehicles also broke down near Haiderpur metro station, Mukarba Chowk, Dhaula Kuan and other places.