Traffic woes for Delhiites as rain brings respite

New Delhi: While Delhiities were today greeted with morning showers bringing respite to weeks of sweltering heat in the national capital region, traffic moved at snail’s pace as a thunder-storm followed by rain brought the entire city to a halt, blocking traffic and interrupting regular movement at most places.

The Met office earlier forecast a partly cloudy day with possibility of dust storm followed by rain in the evening.

Motorists were seen having a harrowing time as traffic slowed down on major intersections, including those leading to Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad.

Traffic came to a standstill at several places with Shanti Path, Sardar Patel Marg, Dhaula Kuan, Delhi cantonment, Mahipalpur-Badarpur road, Ring Road, IIT-flyover, South extension and Ashram crossing in south Delhi witnessing the worst.

Heavy traffic was witnessed on Outer Ring Road as the commuters tried taking detours to reach their destinations during the peak hour.

Several office goers reached late for work because of the slow movement of traffic. The Ring Road from Lajpat Nagar to South Extension was jam-packed because of traffic.

Owing to bad weather conditions, more than 25 flights were yesterday diverted from Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flight from Karnataka was diverted from Delhi to Jaipur, but landed in the national capital at around 12:10 a.m.

Thunderstorm accompanied by squall is also likely to occur at isolated places in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

The minimum temperature this morning settled at 24 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal. The maximum temperature is likely to hover around 39 degrees Celsius.

The Met office also forecast heavy rains at isolated places in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and South Interior Karnataka. (ANI)