Heavy rains bring Indian capital to standstill, delays Kerry's townhall address

Heavy monsoon rains brought the Indian capital and its wealthy suburb Gurgaon to a grinding halt Wednesday, triggering massive traffic snarls and waterlogging.

Visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was also not spared the brunt of the showers as he got stuck and his townhall address to Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi got delayed by an hour.

Kerry was, however, not short of humour. "I don't know you all got here, you must have needed boats to get here," he told students, joking about the traffic jams across Delhi.

It was just two hours of heavy downpour, but that was enough to give commuters a harrowing time on the roads as traffic crawled and kilometres of tailback followed.

Local TV channels showed footage of office-goers and school students stuck in buses and cars for hours, before the traffic police managed to clear the chaos.

Police officials said the situation is gradually becoming normal in Delhi and Gurgaon, which had last month witnessed a one-and-a-half day-long traffic jams and waterlogging due to heavy rains.

Traffic snarls are common in Delhi and nearby cities of the National Capital Region during the monsoon season that lasts from July to September every year. Endit