Heavy rains in Delhi, traffic disrupted

Heavy showers drenched Delhiites today as the capital received the highest rainfall for a single day this monsoon even as waterlogging and slow traffic inconvenienced commuters.

The rain gauges in the city measured 59.5 mm for a period of 24 hours till 8:30am today, the highest for a single day. On August 21, the city received 54.4 mm rains, the highest so far.

Pothholed roads and waterlogging, which in some cases rose upto four feet, slowed down vehicular movement causing inconvenience to office goers.

There was water logging upto four feet high under the Railway bridge in Pul Prahladpur while vehicular movement was slow from Durgapuri Chowk to Loni Border, Dabri, Maa Aanand Mai marg, Kalkaji, Govindpuri, Khanpur, Hamdard Nagar, GK-1 and Anand Parbat.

"Traffic is also badly affected due to wide and deep potholes under and Sarita Vihar Metro Station and on the service road in the carriageway going from Badarpur to Ashram," police said.

Commuters at Andrew Ganj, Lodhi flyover, Lala Lajpat Rai Marg, Mahipalpur, Hari Nagar, IIT crossing to Adhchini, Yusuf Sarai Market, Munirika flyover, Badarpur border, Wazirpur industrial area, Ashok Vihar suffered due to pothholes and waterlogging.

The heavy showers since August 20 had brought down the city's monsoon deficit to less than 20% from 43% earlier this month.

This month has got 328 mm of rains, the second highest for August in the past 12 years. The city received 455.1 mm showers in August 2010.

The city has received a total of 478.4 mm of rain during this monsoon, which had an onset on July 6. The record rain for the month was in 1961 when the city received 583.3 mm of showers in August.