Heavy rain pummels Delhi, Tukhmirpur logs 160 mm in 24 hours

New Delhi, Jul 9 (PTI) Heavy overnight rain that continued through Thursday morning battered Delhi, triggering widespread waterlogging, uprooting trees and leaving roads gridlocked. Safdarjung, the capital's base weather station, recorded 72.6 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours that ended at 8.30 am, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. Tukhmirpur in northeast Delhi's Khajuri received the highest rainfall at 160 mm during this period, it said. Mayur Vihar received 103 mm of rainfall, Delhi University 90 mm, Mehrauli 86 mm, Pusa and Lodhi Road AWS 83 mm each, Lodhi Road 80 mm, Ridge 78 mm and Chhatarpur 72 mm. Palam and Narayana recorded 63 mm of rainfall each, Janakpuri 62 mm, Ayanagar 57 mm, Pragati Maidan 50 mm, Najafgarh 43 mm, Mungeshpur 41 mm, Jharoda Kalan 33 mm and Jafarpur 6 mm. Hours of incessant rain spelled chaos on roads, uprooting trees and leaving several areas waterlogged. Two trees were uprooted on Raja Dhir Singh Marg in southeast Delhi's East of Kailash, disrupting traffic in the area, Delhi Fire Service officials said. One tree fell on the road near the ISKCON temple, the other was outside the National Heart Institute, they said. Waterlogging was reported from Vikas Marg, parts of east Delhi, New Delhi railway station, Munirka, Sadar Bazar and Dwarka. Traffic crawled on the Delhi-Noida Expressway. In parts of Jangpura, pedestrians and vehicles waded through knee-high water. Two-wheeler riders were seen pushing their vehicles through inundated streets. Several commuters and residents took to social media to share their ordeal. Officials said that on the instructions of Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, teams of Public Works Department, Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Delhi Jal Board have been deployed across the city to prevent waterlogging. They claimed that the situation on all major roads was "under control" despite the heavy rain. The IMD said the minimum temperature in Delhi settled at 24.3 degrees Celsius, 3.6 notches below normal. Generally cloudy skies with moderate to heavy rain, thunderstorms and lightning are expected during the day. Weather experts have attributed the persistent rain over the past two days to the seasonal monsoon trough shifting northwards from central India towards the Himalayan foothills. They said Delhi is likely to continue receiving widespread rainfall until the system moves further north, after which the city is expected to witness drier spells. PTI SGV DIV DIV