Light downpour brings Chandigarh to a halt, causes waterlogging, traffic chaos

Massive waterlogging triggered by a 10 mm downpour — classified as ‘light rainfall’ by the weather department — led to traffic chaos and brought Chandigarh to a halt during peak morning hours on Tuesday.

Early‑morning showers provided relief from the hot, humid weather, but locals were left in the lurch due to the Municipal Corporation’s ill‑preparedness.

Majority of the roads and streets, especially the low-lying areas were waterlogged, once again exposing the inaction on the part of the Municipal Corporation, causing major disruption in the normal traffic flow.

The Tribune Chowk, GMCH-32 roundabout, PGIMER junction, Madhya Marg grid, Transport Chowk, Hallomajra to Chandigarh boundary in Zirakpur, and several other crossroads in different parts of the city witnessed a chock-a-block with vehicles moving bumper-to-bumper at snail’s pace.

“It usually takes me about 20 minutes to drop my son at school in Sector 26, but today even after 30 minutes I’m still not even halfway there,” shared Shweta Gujral, a Mohali resident, while ruing “very little” or “no” presence of traffic cops at most of the clogged junctions.

A large number of office and school-goers were seen struggling to find their way through the traffic bottlenecks.

However, Mohali and Panchkula experienced very light rainfall, which measured 0.5-mm during the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for heavy rain coupled with thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh and Haryana on Wednesday.

Today, the mercury dipped considerably to settle at 30.9 and 24.9 in Chandigarh, 30.6 and 25.7 in Mohali, and 29 and 24.5°C in Panchkula.

While Chandigarh witnessed a dip of 2.9 and 1 degrees in day and night temperature, which was 2.5 and 1.8 degrees below normal respectively, Panchkula recorded lowest night temperature in Haryana.

The relative humidity in Chandigarh, however, remained 91 per cent. The IMD has predicted partly cloudy sky with thunderstorms and rain for the next five days in Tricity till August 10.