Delhi rains: Heavy downpour in capital and adjoining areas cripples traffic; IMD warns about more

Many parts of the national capital and key road stretches remained flooded as rains continued to drench the city on Thursday, triggering traffic snarls during morning rush hours.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of heavy rains in the city on August 20.

The downpour may lead to "major traffic disruption" due to heavy water logging and there is an "increased chance" of road accidents, it warned.

The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative figures for the city, recorded 46 mm rainfall between 8:30 am on Wednesday and 8:30 am on Thursday.

On an average, the city gauges 11.3 mm rainfall from 8:30 am on August 19 to 8:30 am on August 20 every year.

The Palam weather station gauged 70.9 mm precipitation during the period, more than six times the normal rainfall.

The Delhi Traffic Police remained busy clearing traffic on Narela-Bawana road, Raja Garden flyover, Kasturba Underpass, MB Rad, Jhandewalan Mandir, Jhilmil underpass,, Azadpur vegetable market, Sarai Pipal Thala, Jahangirpuri, Madanpur Khadar among other places

Similar scenes played out on Wednesday, as incessant rains pummelled the national capital region, submerging roads, underpasses and parks in waist-deep water and bringing traffic on key stretches to a virtual halt.

The flooding was particularly severe in Gurugram, where roads turned into small rivers and parks resembled swimming pools.

Just a few hours of rains flooded swathes of Delhi, spelling trouble for commuters who remained stuck for hours on water-logged roads.

Pictures and videos of vehicles and people wading through waist-deep water were widely shared on social media.

The rains also crippled electricity supply in many areas.

Civic bodies reported incidents of uprooting of trees in a few areas due to the rains.

A boundary wall of a school in Saket collapsed, damaging several vehicles parked alongside it.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that parts of central and east India are likely to receive heavy rainfall over the next five days, until August 25.

IMD’s National Weather Forecasting Centre and Regional Meteorological Centre said that a well-marked low pressure area -- the first stage of any cyclone -- is situated over north coastal Odisha.

The weather agency said it is very likely that it could move westwards and concentrate into a depression soon.

Heavy rainfall is also expected over Chhattisgarh and east Madhya Pradesh on August 20, west Madhya Pradesh on August 21-22, east Rajasthan on August 22 and Gujarat on August 22-23.

IMD has warned that the heavy rains over Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha could cause localised flooding of roads and water logging in low lying areas in urban centres. It may lead to flooding in some river catchment areas.

This comes after heavy rainfall pounded the National Capital Region (NCR) and its adjoining areas early on August 19, leaving underpasses submerged, roads filled with waist-deep water, fallen trees and disruption of electricity lines. The IMD had issued an orange alert for Delhi-NCR for the day.

Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting centre of the IMD told news agency PTI that Delhi recorded moderate rains till 5.30 pm on August 19 and rainfall was likely to continue.

Srivastava said the axis of monsoon will remain close to the national capital till August 20, adding that the moisture was being fed by southwesterly winds from the Arabian Sea and southeasterly winds from the Bay of Bengal.

The downpour also reduced the rain deficiency in the capital -- from 13 percent on August 17 to 11 percent on August 19.