New Delhi: The rains came early on Sunday, and with them returned a sight Delhi knows all too well: a car submerged under the Minto Road bridge, as if to remind the city that little has changed, not even with a new government in power.
A video shared by news agency ANI captured the image in stark detail: water nearly halfway up a vehicle, trapped under one of the capital’s most chronically waterlogged spots. Despite promises from Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s administration to make Delhi “waterlogging-free,” the deluge laid bare the hollowness of that claim.
Waterlogging was reported at multiple critical junctions, including ITO bridge, Azad Market, and Dhaula Kuan flyover, painting a picture of systemic failure rather than isolated oversight. The recent spell of rain, Delhi's heaviest ever recorded in May, overwhelmed the city's already fragile drainage infrastructure.
Ironically, Minto Road was listed among the seven "critical hotspots" targeted for overhaul by Gupta's Public Works Department. New drains, elevated road designs, automated pump houses, all were promised, some even partially implemented. But on the ground, the story remains unchanged: Minto Road, once again, resembled a shallow lake more than a key urban artery.
At ITO bridge, commuters were stranded for hours as vehicles waded through deep water. In Azad Market, an area that had seen targeted infrastructure upgrades in the past year, residents and shopkeepers were left slogging through knee-deep water. Dhaula Kuan, a vital link for both civilian and emergency traffic, was rendered impassable.
Each location, each viral video, reinforces a singular truth: the administration’s promises are failing at the first touch of rain.
In the run-up to the 2025 Assembly elections, the Rekha Gupta-led government pledged to tackle Delhi’s chronic flooding problem head-on. Now in office, her administration is finding it easier to blame its predecessor than to deliver on that pledge. On May 2, she acknowledged the situation as “alarming” and assured urgent action. But in the weeks since, action has largely amounted to statements and surface-level fixes.
The Minto Road underpass, despite “modifications” in 2023, was waterlogged once again. The Loni Road roundabout, another hotspot, saw additional pumps deployed, yet the area still turned into a swamp.
When confronted with criticism, the government’s response has been to claim that it inherited the problem and that “this disease... will take time to be cured.” But that excuse is beginning to wear thin.
Delhiites are not just frustrated, they feel taken for granted. The political language of delay and blame is increasingly sounding like an admission of ineptitude.
And it's not just waterlogging. Pollution control, too, is following a worrying pattern of optics over substance. Much like the AAP government before it, the current administration has focused on anti-smog guns and symbolic gestures rather than addressing core issues like vehicular emissions and traffic congestion, key contributors to Delhi's air quality crisis.
As the city mops up after yet another “unprecedented” spell of rain, the people of Delhi are left asking the most basic of questions: How long before the government stops reacting to disasters and starts preparing for them? How many more promises must drown before accountability finally floats?
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