The Hindu : Front Page : Flights, trains, road traffic, power supply hit hard

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 17, 2005

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Flights, trains, road traffic, power supply hit hard

Sandeep Joshi

CAUGHT IN THE RAIN: Umbrellas out in the Capital on Friday. - PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

NEW DELHI: Incessant rain accompanied by squalls since early morning disrupted life in the Capital on Friday with almost all incoming flights at Indira Gandhi International Airport being diverted due to strong winds and vehicular movement on the roads badly affected as a result of waterlogging and uprooting of trees across the city.

Due to a depression 100 km south-east of Delhi, the Capital was lashed by heavy rain from early in the morning along with strong surface winds. This led to the diversion of all incoming flights for almost four hours at both the domestic and international terminals. The last flight to land at the airport was around 10-30 in the morning.

The high wind speeds led to diversion of over two-dozen flights to other cities including the one carrying Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat from Jaipur besides international flights including those of the German carrier Lufthansa and Britain's Virgin Atlantic. The flight disruptions due to the inclement weather and unscheduled diversions also led to cancellation of some domestic flights during the day.

Continuous rain in the entire North India all day also affected movement of trains mainly due to uprooting of trees along the rail tracks. "All drivers operating in the region have been asked to remain extra cautious. There are some trains that are running slow leading to minor delays in operations. There is no cancellation of trains due to bad weather so far," said a Northern Railway spokesperson.

The heavy rain, almost 38.3 mm by evening, uprooted several trees across the Capital causing traffic jams on busy roads. Waterlogging in several localities and roads including the busy ITO, Najafgarh, GT Road, Nehru Place, parts of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Mathura Road, and parts of Ring Road and Outer Ring Road aggravated the problem.

The Delhi Fire Department received over two-dozen phone calls about uprooted trees and electric short-circuits from various areas.

The rain also affected power and water supply in many areas. Residents of several South Delhi and East Delhi localities complained about long hours of unscheduled power cuts as also lackadaisical response of the private distribution companies. Residents of Gulmohar Park and Defence Colony alleged that despite several phone call to the BSES helpline numbers, no help arrived and they had to remain without power for over eight hours. Local power faults also affected the water supply.

Stating that heavy rain with squalls might continue for the next 24 hours, the Director of the Meteorological Department, R. D. Singh, said the present system had travelled all the way from the North Bay of Bengal to reach the Northern region. "On Thursday, it was over Agra and since then it has travelled to Delhi. The system is slowly moving towards the North and accompanying winds will weaken it gradually. It is a normal monsoon phenomenon as September is referred to as the withdrawal month," he added.

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