Will Delhi ever be free from water-logging?

New Delhi: Be it bus or metro commuters or people driving their own vehicles, all had to spend hours to reach their destination as heavy rainfall since early morning on Tuesday resulted in extensive water-logging, which happens everytime there is a downpour in the national capital.

Vehicular movement was severely affected in several road stretches across Delhi, including near Pragati Maidan in central and Dhaula Kuan in the southern part of the city. As per the Public Works Department (PWD), traffic on stretches such as Dhaula Kuan, Mathura Road, Moti Bagh, Vikas Marg, Ring Road, Rohtak Road, Sangam Vihar, Kirari and near Pragati Maidan among others was affected from morning to evening.

Heavy traffic snarls due to extensive water-logging on the stretch between Rail Bhavan to Parliament even prompted Delhi Police Commissioner Balaji Srivastava to take to Twitter to highlight the issue.

"Daily heavy traffic jam enroute to Parliament near Rail Bhavan. Needs attention at senior levels of DTP traffic and proper traffic management," Srivastava said in a tweet on Tuesday afternoon.

Due to water-logging inside the station at Saket, Delhi Rail Metro Corporation (DMC) had to stop entry and exit at the station for several hours. Sandeep Panday, a metro commuter, told IANS that entry and exit was not allowed at Saket metro station. "People had to reach the adjoining metro station either Qutub Minar or Malviya Nagar to board or deboard in the metro."

Later the DMRC informed, "Service update Normal service has resumed at Saket metro station. Gate no. 1 is open for entry/exit."

Public Works Department officials said water-logging complaints were being dealt with on priority.

"Morning rain was of high intensity so a few areas of the city witnessed water-logging. Our field staff is on the ground and we are closely observing the situation," a PWD official said.

It seems that the problem of water-logging will remain and the people have to become used to being stuck on the roads for hours whenever there is heavy rain in the national capital.

In July 2018, the Delhi High Court had observed that the authorities are "not taking a micro view of the whole problem and there was only a knee-jerk reaction each time."

"While the monsoons are beyond the control of authorities, the problem of water-logging is certainly within their control. It is a shocking state of affairs year after year," a bench of the Delhi High Court had stated on Delhi's water-logging issue in July, 2018.