NEW DELHI: After breaching a 45-year record three days ago, water levels in the Yamuna in Delhicame down to 208.17 metres at 6 pm on Friday even as several key areas in the city were inundated.
Here are the key developments:
Lt Governor VK Saxena and CM Arvind Kejriwal both briefed the media after inspecting the spot at Vikas Bhawan, ITO where a drain regulator was damaged resulting in the flooding of roads.According to Central Water Commission (CWC) data, the water level stood at 208.57 metres in the early hours of Friday and fell marginally to 208.48 metres at 5 am. The water level in the Yamuna was 208.42 metres at 8 am. It went down further to 208.27 metres at 1 pm and 208.25 metres at 3 pm. At 6 pm, the reading stood at 208.17 metres.Vikas Marg, one of the important stretches connecting east and Central Delhi, has been closed for traffic even as the vehicular movement went haywire and commuters got stuck for hours in traffic jams as the Yamuna floodwaters submerged the busy ITO intersection and Rajghat in central Delhi on Friday.The Delhi Traffic Police alerted people to plan their journeys in view of the flood-like situation in many parts of the city. The Yamuna in Delhi swelled to 207.71 metres on Wednesday, breaching its all-time record of 207.49 metres set in 1978.Floodwaters reached the entrance of the Supreme Court in central Delhi and submerged the busy ITO intersection and Rajghat as the Irrigation and Flood Control Department's regulator was damaged.Traffic crawled on several stretches and commuters struggled to reach their destinations as water from the Yamuna spilled onto the roads of the national capital, prompting the Delhi Traffic Police on Thursday to issue an advisory on vehicular movement. There is no restriction on vehicles carrying essential services such as food items and petroleum products, the police said. The closure of roads due to the Yamuna overflowing also hit traffic in several parts of the city, especially east Delhi, where commuters were stuck for hours.Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj told the LG that he made several requests to different officers on Thursday night to call National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) but to no avail and the NDRF team reached only on Friday. LG said: "I would like to tell you that this is not the time to blame someone or make comments. Right now, we need to do teamwork. I too can say a lot of things but this is not needed right now..."This is not time for blame game, need to work together, said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said the water treatment plants at Wazirabad and Chandrawal will resume functioning by Saturday morning if the Yamuna water level recedes to 207.7 metres.The weather office has issued a 'yellow' alert for moderate rain and thundershowers on Saturday in Delhi, parts of which continue to reel from a flood-like situation.Several areas, including Laxmi Nagar, Ayanagar, Lodhi Road, Mungeshpur and a few localities in east Delhi, witnessed light rainfall on Friday. There was a light drizzle in other areas, including Lutyens' Delhi. Three boys drowned in a ditch at a metro construction site while taking a bath in floodwaters in northwest Delhi's Mukundpur Chowk area on Friday, officials said. The boys -- Nikhil (10), Piyush (13) and Ashish (13) -- were residents of northeast Delhi's Jahangirpuri, they said. Major floods in Delhi occurred in 1924, 1977, 1978, 1988, 1995, 1998, 2010 and 2013. An analysis of flood data from 1963 to 2010 indicates an increasing trend for floods occurring in September, and a decreasing trend in July, according to research.(With agencies inputs)
