Wednesday, July 26 2006 14:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: More rain, more waterlogging, more traffic jams. The story was repeated in Delhi Wednesday as heavy rains lashed the city bringing down temperatures but causing huge hassles for everybody, particularly office goers.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the national capital received 32.4 mm rainfall between 8.30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Wednesday, totalling 74 mm rainfall since Tuesday morning.

The met office predicted that cloudy conditions would continue till Friday evening.

"The capital will experience partially cloudy skies coupled with a few spells of showers over the next three days. There may be thundershowers towards Wednesday evening," said an official, adding that the day temperature would hover between 32-34 degrees Celsius.

"The rain is certainly a relief from the unbearable humidity and oppressive heat. For the last two days there were severe power cuts. We hope that the morning rains will bring some respite," said S.N. Gupta, a resident of east Delhi.

But the cheer was only one side of the story.

Waterlogging on several roads led to traffic snarls in many arterial roads and major crossings like ITO, the Nizamuddin bridge, South Extension, Tolstoy Marg, Lajpat Nagar, Malviya Nagar and Saket.

"The government has not cleaned the drains. Water is overflowing on the roads and creating a terrible situation for commuters. Civic bodies are not bothered at all about our complaints. The whole colony gets flooded with less than an hour of rains," said an irate Anujeet Ghosh from Malviya Nagar.

Added a frustrated Rohit Tiwari: "It took me nearly two-and-a-half hours to reach Dhaula Kuan from Mayur Vihar, triple the time it normally takes.

"The civic bodies should take care of the city drains and develop modalities to drain water effectively."

Some days ago, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had admitted that 70 percent of the drains in the capital needed remodelling.

"The majority of the drains in Delhi are too old to handle the monsoon and they need to be widened further. As per our estimate, over 70 percent of the drains need to be remodelled as soon as possible," Anil Prakash, MCD director-in-chief of the department of environment management service, had told IANS.