You Must Crawl Before You Reach Work
HONKING, FUMING, UNMOVING: In Deja Vu For Delhi, Destinations A Mirage As Peak-Hour Traffic Bows To Waterlogging
New Delhi : Delhi woke up to rain — and, as usual, an all-out commuter meltdown. The city roads lit up crimson on Google Maps. With waterlogging, slow vehicle movement and scattered disruptions piling up, key arteries like Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, Vasant Kunj Road, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, National Highway 48 and ITO turned into car traps. By 9am, the capital was a frozen frame — honking, fuming, unmoving.
Motorists became the city’s unofficial reporters on Wednesday and X turned into a live traffic bulletin. One user, stuck at Kalindi Kunj, posted, “I think everyone from law enforcement is on holiday today. It's like a mass bunk.” Another added with dry humour, “Traffic police are guiding taxpayers on what to do, seriously what’s going on?”
Further, Mathura Road, a regular feature in Delhi’s congestion chronicles, saw gridlocks worsen by the minute. Complaints ranged from slow movement to standstills. One commuter tweeted, “Huge traffic jam on Mathura Road. Please organise traffic by sending your people.” Another one pleaded, “Mathura Road from Apollo to Nehru Place is completely waterlogged. Very heavy traffic requires immediate action.”
But it wasn’t just the volume of traffic. The layered chaos made the situation worse. While some areas struggled due to poor traffic management, others were sinking literally. Vasant Kunj and the Mehrauli-Badarpur road both choked with an endless line of vehicles, yet the cause differed. The latter was waterlogged and the space for vehicles was constricted. Car owners shared images of submerged roads, expressing fury in posts that dripped with sarcasm. “World-class road of Delhi from Badarpur to Sangam Vihar, Batra Hospital. Delhi deserves this kind of infrastructure. Thanks to all authorities,” one wrote. Another said, “The result of the administration’s remarkable efforts is the waterlogging near Badarpur Metro, drowning all tall claims. The public is suffering — but does anyone care?”
