Monsoon's First Day in Delhi: 8 Dead, Waterlogging, Traffic Chaos Leave Trail of Destruction

New Delhi: A day after a three-hour downpour caused havoc in the national capital, Delhi on Saturday woke up to light rains. The monsoon arrived in Delhi on Friday and brought the city to a standstill. Rohini and Burari were among the areas that received rainfall this morning. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast generally cloudy skies with heavy rain during the day.

With the monsoon arriving in the capital, the IMD has predicted light to moderate rainfall over the next five days, with parts of Delhi likely to witness heavy showers till July 2.

Meanwhile, Friday's record-breaking rainfall, which was the highest single-day June rainfall in 88 years, brought the the city to a grinding halt. The raining devastation on a city ill-prepared for a three-hour downpour led to the roof of Delhi airport’s Terminal-1 collapsing, killing 8 person and suspending flight operations, and inundated many parts of the capital.

Death Toll Rises to 8

Earlier today, the bodies of three labourers were pulled from the rubble of a wall that collapsed at a construction site in the Vasant Vihar area here amid heavy rain. The under-construction wall collapsed on Friday and the incident was reported to the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) around 5:30 am. 

DFS officials said the bodies of three labourers have been pulled from the rubble. Two of them have been identified as Santosh Kumar Yadav (19) and Santosh (38). The third labourer is yet to be identified.

With this, the number of people killed in rain-related incidents in Delhi has climbed to eight.

The other deceased included a cab driver who died after a portion of a canopy at the Delhi airport collapsed on cars following the rains. A 39-year-old man was electrocuted in Rohini's Prem Nagar area after he came in contact with a live wire. Two children drowned in a rainwater pool in New Usmanpur area. Also, police said that a man in his late 20s drowned in rainwater accumulated at an underpass in northwest Delhi's Shalimar Bagh area.

Chaos in City

The early morning rain on Friday, which brought India’s national capital to its knees, also led to massive traffic and chaos in the city with commuters stranded on roads for hours. The Delhi Traffic Police issued alerts to notify the affected carriageways, advising commuters to plan their journey accordingly. 

The civic agencies and police on Friday received over 300 complaints regarding the waterlogging issues from across Delhi. Similarly, the calls related to the traffic and falling of trees have also reached to these departments.

Key tunnels like the one at Pragati Maidan were closed and reports of homes being flooded came in from across the city, including the upscale areas of Lutyens' Delhi. Bungalows of Delhi Water Minister Atishi and several MPs, including Congress's Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari and Samjawadi Party's Ramgopal Yadav, were flooded.

In several areas, vehicles were submerged as rainwater flooded streets. Many areas experienced severe power cuts and several trees were uprooted. In Kishanganj, passengers stuck inside a bus under the flooded Kodia Bridge underpass were pulled out by police and rescue teams. Using life jackets and water tubes tied with ropes, officials waded through the water to take out the passengers.

In many residential areas, locals had to wade through waist-deep water to leave their homes. Waterlogging in many areas of the city led to a flood-like situation forcing vehicles to crawl amid massive traffic jams.

Powercuts in City

Due to the heavy rains, many areas experienced severe power cuts. Power disruption was caused due to technical faults and precautionary shutdown in the city's waterlogged areas, the officials of power distribution companies (discoms) operating in Delhi said. Residents of Dwarka, Jangpura and Laxmi Nagar said the power supply was cut as soon as it started raining in their areas.

Record Rainfall in City

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data, 228.1 mm of rainfall was recorded at Safdarjung, the city's primary weather station, 192.8 mm at Lodhi Road, Mausam Bhavan, 150.4 mm at Ridge, 106.6 mm at Palam, and 66.3 mm at Ayanagar in the last 20 to 30 hours.

The IMD, which defines very heavy rain as rainfall amounting to between 124.5 and 244.4 mm in a day, said that the monsoon has arrived. The downpour began around 3 am. The 228.1 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Friday is more than three times the June rainfall average of 74.1 mm and the highest for the month since 1936.

On June 24, 1936, 235.5 mm rainfall was recorded in the month of June in Delhi. On June 24, 1933, 139.7 mm rainfall was recorded while Delhi recorded 191.6 mm rainfall on June 30, 1981.