* It took 55-year-old Kuldeep Gupta more than four hours to reach his home in Vikaspuri from Mayur Vihar. He was stuck for two hours near the ITO intersection. * From Jantar Mantar to ITO,a distance of merely five km,took Amrita Puri nearly one-and-a-half hours. Another rainy day in the city spelt hours of frustration for Delhi commuters as traffic,predictably,came to a halt. More than 80 traffic lights were not working,while 16 calls made between 4.15 pm and 5 pm,when it was still raining. The police,with an understaffed force of 4,000 officers,had only a small percentage of this on the roads to battle the logjam. The Outer Circle in Connaught Place was completely paralysed due to waterlogging. Barakhamba Road,where the traffic light has been out of order for over a week now,witnessed heavy jams. The traffic snarl extended up to the Mandi House circle,where the average stoppage time was nearly 30 to 45 minutes. I left my Connaught Place office at 5.30 pm. At 7 pm,I was still standing 200 metres away from the Mandi House circle, Ajay Khanna,a resident of Patparganj,said. Ring Road was the worst affected. There is no movement on the Ring Road. Instead of the normal four-lane traffic,cars are lined up in six lanes, Rohit Tripathi,a commuter,said. Commuter Saurabh Somvanshi,stuck on the BRT stretch at 8 pm,said: I have been standing at the Sunder Nagar traffic light for over an hour now and have not seen a single traffic police officer. Traffic Joint Commissioner S N Shrivastava,meanwhile,was not available for comment. Traffic lights offThe Traffic police received several calls for 33 choke-points,including Moolchand flyover,Dwarka flyover,Purana Qila intersection,Lajpat Nagar-Gupta Market,Tilak Bridge,Ghazipur chowk,Minto Bridge,Dhaula Kuan,Teen Murti roundabout,Akshardham,Lado Sarai and Vasant Kunj-Moti Bagh. Soon after the rains,17 CMS signals and four Keltron signals stopped working. Location of the CMS signals included Shankar Road roundabout,Aurobindo Chowk,Kalibari Mandir,Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium intersection,Majdia T-point, Vijay Chowk,Sangam-RTR intersection,Hazarat Nizammuddin intersection,Africa Avenue-Zandu Singh Marg, Lodhi Road Arch Bishop and IIT. The Keltron signals included Tis Hazari Chowk,Apsara border,Punjabi Bagh Club and Lajwanti Chowk.
