Youth drowns taking selfies in waterlogged underpass

Heavy rain brings traffic to a standstill; constable’s car falls into sinkhole in Dwarka

As heavy rain lashed the Capital on Monday, a 27-year-old man drowned while allegedly clicking selfies in a waterlogged railway underpass in south-east Delhi’s Pul Prahladpur.

Eyewitnesses told the police that Ravi Chautala from Jaitpur had gone to the waterlogged underpass to shoot videos when he drowned.

“We got information about the incident at 1.40 p.m. Fire brigade and divers were sent to the spot for the rescue operation,” said DCP (South-East) R.P. Meena. The body has been sent to AIIMS for an autopsy, the police said, adding that further probe is under way.

Waterlogged streets, wall collapses, uprooted trees and traffic jams were reported from across the city.

In Dwarka’s Sector 18, a car fell into a sinkhole as a portion of the road caved in.

The white car belonged to a constable in Delhi Traffic Police, who was safely rescued. The car was also taken out from the pit with the help of a crane.

108 mm of rainfall

The Met department said the Safdarjung weather station — official record of the city — received 108 mm of rainfall over the past 24 hours with 69.8 mm of rainfall occurring overnight and 38.4 mm between 8.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. on Monday.

Other weather stations like Palam and Najafgarh received 165.9 mm and 159.5 mm of rainfall, respectively over the past 24 hours.

Gurugram received 185 mm of rainfall. The all-time record for the heaviest rainfall for July was recorded on July 21, 1958 — 266.2 mm.

According to the IMD, rainfall measuring 15 mm is considered “light”, between 15 and 64.5 mm is “moderate”, between 64.5 mm and 115.5 mm is “heavy”, between 115.6 mm and 204.4 mm is “very heavy”, and above 204.4 mm is considered as “extremely heavy”.

The rain brought down the maximum temperature on Monday, which settled at 26.5 degrees Celsius, eight degrees cooler than normal. The minimum was 24.2, three degrees below normal. Rain is likely to continue on Tuesday with the weatherman predicting partly cloudy sky with light rain/thundershowers. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to settle between 32 and 24 degrees Celsius respectively.

Traffic snarls were witnessed in areas, including ITO, Pul Prahladpur, Ring Road near Millennium Park, Sarai Kale Khan, Kilokri, near IP Flyover, Dhaula Kuan, Vikas Marg, Azadpur, among others. Waterlogging was reported from Ring Road, Pragati Maidan, Palam, Kirari and Rohtak road.

“Waterlogging reported at Pul Prahladpur under a railway bridge. Traffic is diverted from MB [Mehrauli-Badarpur] road towards Mathura road,” the Delhi traffic police tweeted.

In other tweets complaining of waterlogging, Delhi Traffic Police tagged the Public Works Department (PWD) for swift action.

According to data shared by the municipalities, waterlogging was recorded at 37 locations under SDMC and at seven under North body.

Nineteen incidents of trees being uprooted, and six cases of wall collapse were reported in the area under SDMC jurisdiction.

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