New Delhi, July 29 (IANS) Heavy monsoon showers on Friday led to waterlogging in some areas of the national capital and massive traffic jams across the city, causing severe inconvenience to the people who were stuck for long hours on the roads.
The traffic snarls were triggered by the downpour which hit the city on Friday morning and increased in intensity in the afternoon.
Observatories at Palam, Lodhi Road, the Ridge and Ayanagar respectively recorded 64 mm, 10.2 mm, 14.4 mm, and 41.4 mm rain between 8.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m, weather officials said.
Commuters and office-goers had a tough time reaching their destinations and many of them shared their frustration on twitter.
"Stuck in Delhi traffic jam with rains and waterlogging only God can help," Thackli Lal tweeted.
"We spent two hours in a traffic jam in Delhi. Started from Karol Bagh at 3.15 p.m. reached home at 5.30 p.m.," said Anurag Mishra.
The terrible traffic snarls on roads heading towards Gurgaon continued with Delhi Traffic Police asking commuters to avoid National Highway 8.
South Delhi was hit by massive traffic congestion due to waterlogging on the stretch between IIT-Delhi and Munirka. Other areas like Moti Bagh, Chirag Dilli, Saket, South Extension, Yusuf Sarai, Lodhi Road also saw severe traffic snarls.
Several west Delhi places, including Punjabi Bagh, Karol Bagh, Moti Nagar and Rajauri Garden, Dwarka also faced traffic congestion and waterlogging. East Delhi's Shastri Park, Seelampur, Ghazipur, Laxmi Nagar areas faced similar problem as did central Delhi's ITO, Pragati Maidan, Tughlaq Road and Tilak Marg.
"As many as 24 waterlogging calls and 96 traffic congestion complaints were received till 6 p.m. today (Friday)," a traffic helpline officer told IANS.
Traffic police informed commuters about snarls on various stretches across the city through tweets.
The rain did bring relief from humidity. The maximum temperature settled at 29.1 degrees Celsius, five notches below the season's average while the minimum was 26.5 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season's average.
The humidity oscillated between 97 and 83 per cent.
The meteorological department forecast more rain on Saturday.
"Generally cloudy sky with moderate rain or thundershower is likely to occur on Saturday," an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 30 and 25 degrees Celsius respectively on Saturday, he added.
Thursday's maximum and minimum temperatures were 33.5 and 26 degrees Celsius, each one notch below the season's average.
