Heavy rain in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad; roads flooded, commuters struggle

Heavy showers on Wednesday morning inundated vast swathes of the national capital region and brought back memories of a similar deluge last month when thousands of commuters were stuck for 12 hours in miles-long snarls.across southern and central Delhi with hundreds of people stranded at bus stops and Metro stations.

Office-goers had an especially tough time with packed buses, almost no autos on the road and peaking cab fares. Many complained that cab-hailing apps such as Uber charged than more than 10 times the usual fare.

Apart from the Capital, residents in Hyderabad reported heavy showers that deluged roads and caused massive jams in the central and southern parts of the city.

Photos tweeted by users showed cars stuck in rising waters and massive jams.

Commuters on their way to NCR towns of Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad were stuck in snarls for hours on national highway 8 and national highway 24 as the rain showed no signs of abating. Eight city buses reported a breakdown on the roads.

"I left for office at 7 am and by the time I reached NH-24, it had started pouring heavily. The traffic is not moving at all and I have moved just a few metres since the past one hour," said Suchitra Rautela, a resident of Indirapuram.

Commuters said that smaller internal roads linking their locality to the arterial roads were also jammed.

"It took me more than an hour to just get on the highway as the internal road connecting Crossing Republik to the highway has been jammed. Many people were seen coming back on the wrong side which resulted in the gridlock," said Dr Ruchir Mishra, a resident of Crossing Republik.