Five hours to cross from Noida to Delhi. That was the reality for thousands on Thursday as relentless rain drowned the capital’s roads and sent the Yamuna surging past the danger mark. The river touched 207.43 metres by night — the third-highest reading since systematic records began in 1963 — forcing closures, evacuations, and an emergency response that stretched across the National Capital Region.
Waterlogging turned major corridors into parking lots. The Noida–Greater Noida Expressway barely moved for hours. Inside Delhi, low-lying stretches from Ring Road to Civil Lines and Bela Road disappeared under waist-deep pools. Rescue teams ferried residents to higher ground while traffic police scrambled to manage diversions that kept changing with the waterline.
What’s driving the surge and gridlock
The immediate trigger is simple: too much rain in too little time, plus a heavy gush from upstream. Discharge from Haryana’s Hathnikund barrage swelled to about 1.78 lakh cusecs by evening — more than triple the usual threshold of 50,000 cusecs. That volume typically takes roughly 24–36 hours to translate into higher water levels downstream in Delhi. The result: already flooded storm drains had nowhere to send the runoff as the Yamuna’s backflow pushed water right back into the city.
As the river rose, pressure points snapped. A small sinkhole in Janakpuri grew into a crater about 10 feet wide after the downpour, swallowing part of the road. On National Highway 44, a section of a flyover under the Alipur police station area caved in, disrupting one of the city’s key freight and intercity routes. Authorities closed the Old Railway Bridge to traffic — a routine but disruptive safety step when the Yamuna swells this high.
The civic fallout stacked up fast. Cremations at Nigambodh Ghat were suspended as the river washed over parts of the facility. Schools — both government and private — shut across affected districts to keep children off flooded commutes. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned that more showers and thunderstorms are likely in the city, though a decline in rainfall over Uttarakhand — one of the Yamuna’s key catchments — could gradually ease the inflow.
The water level number needs context. In Delhi, the danger mark at the Old Railway Bridge is 205.33 metres. Thursday’s 207.43 metres puts the river well above that. For perspective, the 1978 flood peaked near 207.49 metres, while July 2023 set an all-time record around 208.66 metres. This week’s surge is below last year’s extreme, but high enough to swamp floodplains, outfalls, and roads that sit close to the river.
Relief, risks and what comes next
Evacuations began early and widened as the day progressed. Over 12,000 residents across the region moved out, according to district officials. NDRF teams worked through Old Usmanpur, Garhi Mendu, Jharoda Kalan, and Mungeshpur, moving families by boat and truck to safer spots. In Noida alone, nearly 2,500 people — many of them farm workers and farmhouse caretakers — shifted to six government-run shelters. About 2,000 animals were also herded into temporary enclosures to keep them off submerged farmland.
Delhi set up emergency shelters at 38 locations, including in Yamuna Khadar and Mayur Vihar, to take in those from inundated floodplains and riverbank settlements. Many others went to relatives’ homes as a first resort. District magistrates said between 10,000 and 12,000 people had been rescued by evening, with more relocations planned overnight.
On the roads, the list of choke points grew longer by the hour. Ring Road saw repeated shutdowns and slowdowns near ITO and beyond as water overtopped drains. Civil Lines, Bela Road, Sonia Vihar, and Yamuna Bazar reported deep waterlogging. The Monastery Market stretch in Civil Lines turned into a shallow lake. In Noida, Sector 167 struggled with persistent ponding. With the Old Railway Bridge closed, river-crossing options shrank, pushing extra load onto remaining bridges and spurring citywide diversions.
Traffic police deployed additional personnel but the scale of the disruption overwhelmed any neat plan. Barricades went up, then shifted, as water crept into new spots. Buses were rerouted. Many people abandoned attempts to drive and waited out the peak, while cabs and delivery vehicles crawled through detours to keep essential supplies moving.
Public works teams ran de-watering pumps and cleared silted grates. Yet when the river runs above the outfalls, gravity drainage fails — water has nowhere to go unless it’s pumped over the embankments, a time-consuming and patchy fix when multiple neighbourhoods flood at once. That’s why underpasses and depressions stayed submerged long after the rain stopped.
IMD’s near-term outlook offers a mixed picture: more rain and thunderstorms remain possible in the city, but a dip in rainfall in the upper catchments may lower the barrage discharge. Even then, the next 24–36 hours remain critical because upstream releases take time to show up in Delhi. Officials are coordinating with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to align releases, embankment watch, and floodplain evacuations.
If you need to be out, treat every underpass as risky, even if it looks passable. A stalled car in rising water can turn dangerous in minutes. Plan for longer trips, check updates from traffic police, and pick higher routes even if they add distance. If your home is in a low-lying pocket, move valuables and documents to upper shelves, keep a battery-powered torch handy, and unplug appliances at the main switch if water enters rooms.
- Avoid walking through moving water; even knee-deep flow can knock you over.
- Do not drive through flooded underpasses; depth is easy to misjudge.
- Keep a small go-bag: IDs, medications, phone power bank, and a basic first-aid kit.
- Relocate vehicles to higher ground where possible.
- Watch for manhole covers and broken pavements hidden under water.
Why does this keep happening? Part of the answer is location: large parts of Delhi’s transport network run parallel to or across the river and its old floodplain. When the Yamuna runs high, outfalls along the embankments back up. Another part is capacity: storm drains in older neighbourhoods were built for milder rainfall, and many are choked with silt or debris by the time the monsoon peaks. Add fast urbanisation in Noida and across the NCR — more paved surfaces, less soil to absorb water — and you have a city that sheds water faster than its drains can carry it.
Recent history shows how quickly things can escalate. In 2023, the river hit a record around 208.66 metres, flooding areas that hadn’t seen water in decades and forcing prolonged closures along Ring Road. This week’s 207.43 metres isn’t as extreme, but the impact is still severe because the same vulnerable stretches are in play and the drainage network struggles when the river level stays high for hours.
The human and economic strain is immediate. Daily-wage workers lose shifts. Small businesses along flooded markets shut their shutters. Supply trucks stack up at choke points, raising costs. Parents scramble for childcare on sudden school closures. Ambulances and emergency services build in detours, adding minutes that matter.
Authorities say the priority now is threefold: keep people safe, keep the main arteries moving, and bring the river back below danger as quickly as coordination allows. That means more boats in flooded pockets, steady pumping from critical nodes, and tight communication between barrage operators and district control rooms. The ask from residents is straightforward: stay off the roads if you can, follow diversions, and report any fresh inundation or structural damage so teams can get there fast.
For now, the city watches the gauges and the sky. If the IMD’s projections hold and rainfall upstream eases, the Yamuna should start retreating. Until then, plan for disrupted commutes and be cautious. These are the hours when small decisions — a safer route, a timely evacuation, a call to a neighbour — make a big difference.
One thing is certain: the next phase will test the city’s patience and its systems. The hope is that the lessons of 2023 — rapid evacuations, early closures near the river, and steady updates — keep damage contained this time. Relief teams are out, shelters are open, and the focus is on keeping everyone dry, fed, and informed while the Delhi-NCR floods run their course.