Season's heaviest rain claims 11 lives in Capital (Hindu 13 July 2010)

Delhi in a jam: The state of affairs in Connaught Place on Monday evening following heavy rain. - At least 11 people, including two women and three children, were killed in rain-related incidents as a heavy downpour lashed the Capital on Monday evening, causing endless traffic jams and water-logging in many areas.
Four cases of electrocution were reported from various parts of the city in which six persons lost their lives while five others perished in two incidents of wall collapse.
Two persons each died of electrocution in Chandni Chowk and Manasarovar Park while one death each was reported from Mori Gate and Patel Nagar. The victim in Patel Nagar was a 13-year-old boy. Two men were electrocuted when they came into contact with an electric wire which fell off a pole due to the rain in Chandni Chowk at around 8 p.m. The victims were identified as Ram Kishan and Ram Lakhan.
A woman, Shanti Devi, and her children Pankaj (8) and Navin (12) died when a portion of a wall collapsed in Jhilmil Colony amid rain around 8-30 p.m., the police said.
In another incident, an elderly woman and her grandchild died in Vivek Vihar. Two persons were injured in a wall collapse in Jamia Nagar.
After battling hot and muggy weather for days, Delhiites making their way back home from work were caught unawares when the skies suddenly opened up on Monday evening. The heavy rain accompanied by an 82-km-per-hour squall left the roads flooded and thousands stranded in huge traffic jams across the city.
The Capital received 51.4 mm of rainfall, the season's highest so far.
The long traffic jams caused by water-logged roads and uprooted tree brought life to a complete standstill in the city. Massive jams were reported at Ashram, Pragati Maidan, ITO, India Gate, Mandir Marg, Satya Niketan, Wazirpur underpass, Azad Market, Nizamuddin, Jangpura, Bhogal, Vikas Marg, Chanakyapuri, Rajghat, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Nehru Place, Connaught Place, Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Dhaula Kuan and several parts of North-West Delhi. The MCD Control Room received 32 complaints of water-logging and 13 of trees falling from across its 12 zones till 8-30 p.m. The NDMC also received water-logging complaints from several areas including Barakhamba Road and Connaught Place. A harassed commuter, Geetanjali Sharma, said: “I left my office on Parliament Street around 8 p.m. and the commute to my home which usually takes under 10 minutes got stretched to over an hour due to water-logging on the roads. An uprooted tree on the Ranjit Singh flyover added to the bottleneck. I was forced to abandon my car near the flyover and walk the rest of distance to my house wading through water Traffic management was zero. Besides witnessing half a dozen fights between commuters and cops, I also saw one person falling into a manhole near Windsor Place which was heavily water-logged.”