Yamuna recedes but fresh rain keeps Capital on tenterhooks

The Yamuna receded on Saturday and some of the waterlogging it directly or indirectly caused cleared up, allowing authorities to reopen several key roads that were shut for days, triggering traffic chaos and forcing schools shut and prompting most offices to work from home.

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At 11pm, the river flowed at 206.54m, down from 207.98m at 11pm on Friday but still well above the danger mark of 205.33m. Areas such as Rajghat, ITO area, Salimgarh underpass, parts of Mukherjee Nagar, Yamuna Bazar, Hakikat Nagar and Jaitpur were still waterlogged. Some key routes, such as Vikas Marg, Metcalfe Café Road, ISBT, Sarai Kale Khan as well as some closed parts of the Ring Road and Boulevard Road were reopened, although there was still some water on these stretches.

"As water levels in Yamuna have started receding, PWD has started pumping out the water, cleaning the roads and opening them out for traffic. ISBT and Bhairon Marg are open for traffic now. PWD is working on a war footing to ensure that roads and traffic return to normalcy as soon as possible," revenue minister Atishi said in the morning, which was followed by other updates through the day. The restored links included the two trans-Yamuna routes: Geeta Colony to Shanti Van and Vikas Marg. When both were shut on Friday, traffic across the river had to be funneled to NH24 and DND Flyway, leading to heavy congestion on a number of routes in and around south, east and central Delhi.

Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena said Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him and inquired about Delhi flood. "Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji called up as soon as he reached India and took a detailed account of the flood situation in Delhi information about the related efforts being made. He again instructed to do all possible work in the interest of the people of Delhi with the help and cooperation of the Centre," LG tweeted.