Delhi: Rain brings respite, traffic snarls at various places

New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) The overnight rainfall in the national capital plummeted the temperature in the city, yet disrupted normal life.

As per reports, the rain caused massive traffic jams in various parts of Delhi leaving commuters stranded in long queues of vehicles at major roads like ITO junction among others.

Some trees were also uprooted due to the strong winds and thunderstorms in and around Delhi. A big tree that fell near the Delhi cantonment area blocked the traffic from both sides, causing inconvenience to the commuters.

Apart from traffic jams, water-logging was also reported from all the low-lying areas of the city.

Starting in the wee hours, Delhi-NCR and large parts of northwest India witnessed a massive dust storm first followed by gusty winds and a thunderstorm accompanied with lightning bringing down the surface temperature by 11 notches.

The IMD had earlier predicted a wet spell for northwest India for three days, from May 22 to 24 with peak intensity on May 23.

Meanwhile, flight operations at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport were also disrupted. The airport authorities requested the passengers to reach out to the airline concerned for updated flight information.