A 22-year-old woman and his three-year-old son drowned in a waterlogged drain near Khoda Colony in Delhi’s Ghazipur on Wednesday following incessant rainfall.
According to police, the deceased Tanuja and her three-year-old son Priyansh had gone to buy household items from a weekly market. The pair was on the way back when it started raining. The road was waterlogged, and Tanuja got slipped and fell into an open drain with her son. The roadside drain was under construction.
Hours later, they both were brought out with the help of divers and cranes about 500 m away, the mother still clutching her son’s hand. The duo was taken to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital where doctors declared them dead, the police officer said.
The deceased’s family members have said the mother and son could have been saved if the rescue operation was smooth, reported NDTV. Tanuja’s husband Govind Singh works in a private firm in Noida.
“If the rescue operation was swift, my wife and son could have been saved. Every year, such incidents take place, but no action is taken,” he said.
Tanuja’s uncle Harish Rawat said the drain was overflowing and she could not spot it in time. “We got information around 7.30 pm. We dialled 100 and the cops came with a rescue team. But they did not have proper equipment. They kept trying, but it did not work. The bodies were recovered more than two hours later.”
The local residents blamed the civic authorities for the duo’s tragic death. They said that the drain has been open for the past three months and overflows during every rainfall. “We have complained multiple times, but the administration does not want to work. I have lived for 20 years here and I have seen flooded roads every monsoon. We have approached MPs, MLA, officials, but nothing worked,” a resident said.
Besides Tanuja and his son, five other fatalities have been reported across the Delhi-NCR in separate incidents after the heavy downpour on Wednesday.
A 12-year-old boy died due to electrocution at Bindapur area of Delhi’s Dwarka district. The father of the deceased told the cops that his son got electrocuted while returning back from tuition at 7 pm on Wednesday. Two plastic pipes containing disconnected electric cable were found emerging from the ground.
Further, one person was killed in the Subzi Mandi area and three more injured — two in Shastri Park and one in Defence Colony due to building collapse incidents following the torrential rain.
Additionally, officials said three people died due to electrocution near Gurugram’s IFFCO Chowk metro station around 10 pm on Wednesday. “Electric wires broke due to a tree falling because of waterlogging. Three people died on the spot due to an electric current in the water. Police have sent the bodies of the deceased to the hospital,” they added.
The torrential downpour prompted the weather office to include Delhi in its list of “areas of concern” in the National Flash Flood Guidance Bulletin. The department advised people to remain indoors, secure windows and doors, and refrain from unnecessary travel.
Delhi Education Minister Atishi announced late night that all schools in the city will remain closed on Thursday. “In light of the very heavy rainfall this evening and the forecast of heavy rainfall tomorrow, all schools both government and private will remain closed on August 1st,” she posted on ’X’.
The heavy downpour also led to a house collapse in north Delhi’s Sabji Mandi area near Robin Cinema, injuring one person. In another incident in southwest Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, a woman was injured in a wall collapse.
The inclement weather also hit air traffic. At least 10 flights scheduled to land at the Delhi airport were diverted — eight to Jaipur and two to Lucknow — due to inclement weather conditions. Airlines also warned of the possibility of more flight disruptions.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the Salwan station in East Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area recorded 147.5 mm rainfall from 8.30 am on Wednesday till 7.15 am on Thursday. The Najafgarh station recorded 113 mm rainfall and the Lodhi Road, Delhi University and Safdarjung observatories recorded 107.5 mm, 104.5 mm, and 105.6 mm rainfall respectively, it said. It is the highest in rainfall recorded in Safdarjung observatory after 2010. The highest rainfall is 184 mm which was recorded on July 2 in 1961.
The Delhi Police received 2,945 calls in the last 24 hours regarding traffic jams, 127 calls for water logging and 27 complaints regarding building collapse and 50 of tree uprooting.
The traffic situation was especially chaotic on roads in Lutyens’ Delhi and those leading to Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.
Old Rajinder Nagar, where students were protesting the death of three UPSC aspirants due to flooding in a coaching institute basement, was under knee-deep water. In Connaught Place, water gushed into many showrooms and restaurants.
Widespread waterlogging prompted the traffic police to issue an advisory, asking commuters to avoid certain roads.
They said vehicular movement was hit on the carriageway from Moolchand towards Chirag Delhi, both carriageways on Anuvrat Marg, Outer Ring Road, Syama Prasad Mukherjee Marg and Mahatma Gandhi Marg among other key roads.
The traffic police also suggested alternative routes and highlighted diversions imposed for commuters to consider given the waterlogging.
Multiple areas, including in Kashmere Gate, Karol Bagh and Pragati Maidan, were marooned following the heavy downpour.
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