Fallen trees, waterlogging hold up morning traffic

Residents continued to feel the aftermath of intermittent rains, with commuters across the city facing a tougher than usual drive on Friday morning due to waterlogging,

Residents continued to feel the aftermath of intermittent rains, with commuters across the city facing a tougher than usual drive on Friday morning due to waterlogging, vehicle breakdowns and fallen trees obstructing arterial and main roads across the city.

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Spells of rain late Thursday night and early Friday caused waterlogging in many areas — Civil Lines, Gurugram bus stand, Tikri exit on Sohna Road, sectors 28, 29, 30, 31, 49 and 50, South City, Fazilpur Chowk, and Shyam Chowk.

The worst affected by waterlogging was Shyam Chowk on Jwala Mill Road in Udyog Vihar, where, due to heavy accumulation of rainwater, commuters heading from the service lanes of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway had little space to move towards Udyog Vihar. The backlog extended on to the main carriageway of the expressway, leading to traffic movement being affected till a point further than Iffco Chowk.

It was only when vehicle-mounted pumps were roped in by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) that the rainwater started to recede.

“It took me 20 minutes to take the left cut after Shankar Chowk and head further inside Udyog Vihar. There was heavy traffic all along Jwala Mill Road and the service lanes of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. The backlog extended all onto the main carriageway of the expressway as well. It was only after I crossed Shyam Chowk did the congestion end,” said Abhinav Kumar, who works at an automobile showroom in Udyog Vihar.

Raman Sharma, the chief engineer of MCG, said that waterlogging was restricted to localised points in the city and officials were deputed at these points as soon as they received information about the same.

“Overall, the city did not have much waterlogging and most major roads were completely free of rainwater. At the points where heavy rainwater was accumulated, the reason was largely due to heavy silt deposition in stormwater drains or the passageway being obstructed by stones. Accordingly, we set up motor pumps and vehicle-mounted pumps at such locations and diverted rainwater to the nearest possible functioning drain. By noon, all points across the city were free of waterlogging,” said Sharma.

Rain and heavy wind also resulted in a tree falling on the main carriageway of the Mehrauli-Gurgaon (MG) Road, near the Government College for Girls in Sector 14, which affected traffic movement.

For a 150-metre stretch, traffic police officials diverted vehicles heading towards Kaman Sarai onto the other carriageway, dividing the only usable three-lane carriageway into two.

A bus breakdown at MDI Chowk, opposite the Bata office around 11am compounded the traffic problem, while a crane also got stuck below the Jharsa Chowk flyover. Both these points are located next to the expressway, due to which traffic was held up at major junctions across the city.

Traffic police officials said they prepared in advance to deal with usual waterlogging and traffic issues.

“Since it started raining lightly late Thursday, we had ample time to take precautionary measures. Accordingly, officials were deputed at all known waterlogging-prone points. When information was received of severe waterlogging, tree falling or vehicle breakdown, a heavier deputation of traffic police officials was done to ensure traffic kept moving and there is minimal congestion,” said Himanshu Garg, deputy commissioner of police, traffic.

Officials of the electricity department said there were outages in some areas, but they resolved the issues.

Joginder Hooda, superintending engineer, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), said, “There were breakdowns in some areas due to the rains, but we restored electricity in one to two hours.”

Residents of Sector 40 said the power went off around 10.30pm, after it started raining, and was restored after 10 hours.

“We faced a 10 to 11-hour power cut after rain on Thursday night, because the rain caused damage to a cable and the DHBVN men fixed the problem early Friday. Power cuts are a major issue here, however,” said RS Yadav, president of Sector 40 residents’ welfare association.