According to the India Meteorological Department, the city received over 112 mm of rainfall till 5.30 p.m. Though the rains brought the temperatures down to pleasant levels, the Weather Office forecast that the rain would continue for a couple of days - a foretaste of more trouble.

At the Mehrauli-Badarpur Road near Batra Hospital in south Delhi, a section of nearly 400 metres of road caved in due to which several buses were stalled for hours.

People alleged that the quality of the material used to construct the road was substandard as it was repaired only 20 days ago.

The commotion that ruled Delhi forced some offices to ask their employees to work from home.

'Our office is shut today. We are working from home as it is impossible to reach office in time,' said Aarti David, assistant manager in publication house Sage India.

'Delhi plans to become a world-class city but it is a shame that we cannot manage traffic and waterlogging on an exceptionally rainy day. Last evening, it took me more than two hours to reach my father's office which is barely three kilometres away from my office in Mathura Road,' David told IANS.

Power outages were also reported in many areas after overhead electrical cables collapsed. And as has been the case in the past, several roads were flooded with water from choked drains.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) control room was inundated with complaints of flooding in several residential areas.

The civic agency received 63 complaints of waterlogging and 26 of trees falling across the city, an official said.

The heavy downpour and the chaos it brought again exposed the city authorities' claims of making Delhi a global city that is to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010, the cricket World Cup in 2011, and make a bid for the 2014 Asian Games.

'The blame game will begin again after the chaos. The city government will blame the MCD, which in turn will blame the fury of nature. The Public Works Department (PWD) and Delhi Police have to share the blame for their failure to manage arterial roads and traffic respectively,' said Krishna Kumar, a employee of an IT firm.