Story behind the photo: New Delhi: A Delhi Jal Board (DJB) pipe burst at Ring Road-Bhairon Road crossing on Wednesday afternoon led to massive rush hour traffic snarls in central Delhi. The main road remained submerged under two feet of water, leaving those returning home from work caught in jams which lasted for hours. The pipeline burst also affected water supply in south Delhi areas like Greater Kailash, Okhla, Ashram, Kalkaji and Kailash Colony.
The 1200 mm-diameter pipe developed a leak around 3.30pm soon after which the main crossing started getting waterlogged. By 5pm, when the evening rush hour traffic started piling up, there was knee deep water on the road. The acute waterlogging forced the traffic police to divert traffic from the main crossing, causing severe jams on the entire road network of the area. ‘‘I was stuck at the India Gate circle for over 40 minutes. All the roads leading out towards central and east Delhi were also completely clogged,’’ said Amar Verma, a resident of IP Extention, who was heading back from his office in Gurgaon.
The effect of the jams was felt for several kilometres on Ring Road, Bhairon Road, Mathura Road, ITO bridge, IP Marg, ITO crossing, India Gate and all the radials leading out of it. The traffic police said vehicles were diverted from the affected area, but the rush was so much that congestion was inevitable. ‘‘We informed senior officials of DJB, who plugged the leak soon after. But the water collected on the main road and took some time to clear out. Additional manpower was posted to control the situation, but congestion was there,’’ said S N Shrivastava, joint commissioner of police (traffic).
DJB, meanwhile, said the leak had been identified and was being fixed. ‘‘The repair work has started and is expected to be complete by Thursday morning. The pipe is really old and is unable to
take the load of the system. It had developed a similar problem last month too. Now, we are in the process of relaying a new pipe network, which will be completed by November,” said a senior DJB official.
