Torrential monsoon rains unleashed widespread destruction across several parts of the country on Thursday, inundating roads, uprooting trees, damaging property and disrupting normal life as authorities scrambled to restore normalcy.Roads and residential areas remained submerged in several cities, with commuters wading through knee-deep water and traffic crawling on major roads and highways. Trees uprooted by strong winds blocked roads at several places, while flooding disrupted vehicular movement and damaged houses.Rescue operations also continued at the site of a building that collapsed a day earlier at a waste-to-energy plant in Maharashtra’s Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune after a massive mound of garbage gave way due to heavy rain.Delhi witnessed one of its heaviest spells of rain this season, with widespread waterlogging, uprooted trees and traffic snarls throwing life out of gear.Commuters make their way through a waterlogged road following heavy rain, in the Gazipur area of New Delhi, on Thursday. PTIThe India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a ‘red’ alert for the day as the Safdarjung, the capital’s base weather station, recorded 72.6 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours that ended at 8.30 am, and Tukhmirpur in northeast Delhi’s Khajuri received the highest rainfall at 160 mm during this period.Hours of incessant rain spelled chaos on roads, uprooting trees and leaving several areas waterlogged.Waterlogging was reported from Vikas Marg, parts of east Delhi, New Delhi railway station, Munirka, Sadar Bazar, and Dwarka. Traffic crawled on the Delhi-Noida Expressway. In parts of Jangpura, pedestrians and vehicles waded through knee-high water. Two-wheeler riders were seen pushing their vehicles through inundated streets.Several commuters and residents took to social media to share their ordeal.Chief Minister Rekha Gupta inspected the drainage arrangements in Shalimar Village in her Assembly constituency and directed officials to ensure proper water drainage, while Public Works Department (PWD) minister Parvesh Sahib Singh also visited the PWD’s control at ITO to review the dewatering arrangements and said that in most cases the stagnant water was removed and the “situation is better than in previous years”.In neighbouring Gurugram, a section of the balcony of a luxury apartment complex collapsed on a rain-soaked on Thursday morning, though no injuries were reported. Residents blamed alleged negligence by the builder and demanded a structural audit of the entire housing project.In Rajasthan, widespread rainfall soaked parts of the state, with the Met department forecasting extremely heavy rainfall in isolated areas of Kota and Bharatpur divisions on Thursday. Badesar and Nimbahera in Chittorgarh district, and Bayana in Bharatpur district recorded nine centimetres of rainfall — the highest in the state during the 24 hours ending Thursday morning.Heavy rainfall is likely to continue at isolated places in the Bharatpur division and adjoining districts on July 10, while rainfall activity is expected to decline in the rest of the state. From July 11, rainfall activity is likely to decrease across most parts of Rajasthan for about a week.The IMD announced on Thursday that the southwest monsoon has further advanced into the remaining parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, covering the entire country.The department said that there has been a delay of a day in the monsoon, covering the whole country, as it normally takes place on July 8. The monsoon onset over Kerala this year took place on June 4, marking the beginning of the southwest monsoon season (June-September) in the country. Usually, the arrival of the monsoon in the state occurs on June 1.So far in July, India has witnessed a large surplus of rainfall. While the normal rainfall in the first nine days of the month is 73.8 mm, the country as a whole has seen 101.9 mm of rainfall.A woman washes utensils in the partially submerged area of her house after heavy rain, at a village in Khowai district, Tripura, on Thursday. PTIA damaged building after a landslide near Kaddukhal on National Highway 707A following heavy rainfall, in Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, on Thursday. PTIAs heavy rains continued in parts of Kerala, the IMD on Thursday issued an orange alert in three districts of the state for the day. The IMD issued an orange alert in the districts of Malappuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad. It also issued a yellow alert in six other districts — Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad, Kannur and Kasaragod — for the day.The rains caused property damage in many parts of the state due to uprooted trees and broken branches. Waterlogging of roads and flooding in low-lying areas were also reported from various parts of Kerala. The death toll in the Wayanad landslide rose to five on Thursday after two more bodies were recovered from the disaster site, while three persons remained missing.Monsoon-related incidents have claimed three lives and forced the evacuation of nearly 800 persons across Thane district in Maharashtra in the past week, while a lightning strike in the latest weather-related incident left two persons injured, officials said on Thursday.Torrential downpours have caused widespread disruption, forcing emergency teams to rescue and shift 797 persons from 229 families to safer locations, they said.The heavy rains have also severely damaged infrastructure, causing 136 houses to collapse either partially or completely across the district.