Gurugram rain leaves roads waterlogged, commuters stranded

Following a short spell of heavy rain in the morning, heavy waterlogging was reported from the Galleria market Road, at Khandsa on National Highway 48, Narsinghpur Chowk, parts of Dundhahera and interior roads of Palam Vihar, among other stretches, including parts of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway

Residents woke up to a heavy spell of rain on Saturday morning, with 34.8mm of rainfall leaving several stretches heavily waterlogged and commuters stranded. Many also took to social media to highlight their plight, despite there being fewer vehicles on roads on account of it being a weekend.

Traffic movement was affected at a few points of NH-48 between Dhaula Kuan and Gurugram, near Galleria Market, Khandsa, New Colony Road in Sector 7 and parts of Sector 52 due to the rainfall. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

Heavy waterlogging was reported from the Galleria market Road, at Khandsa on National Highway 48, Narsinghpur Chowk, parts of Dundhahera and interior roads of Palam Vihar, among other stretches, including parts of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

Traffic movement was affected at a few points of NH-48 between Dhaula Kuan and Gurugram, near Galleria Market, Khandsa, New Colony Road in Sector 7 and parts of Sector 52. A small part of a road also caved in near Manesar on Saturday morning, following a spell of heavy rain.

“All our personnel were on alert and on specific spots where traffic congestions were reported to facilitate the traffic flow. Traffic snarls started being reported in the second half of the day but, heavy traffic jams were not reported as such,” a senior official of the traffic department, requesting not to be named, said.

Residents took to social media to report that a security camera near Sushant Estate in Sector 52 broke down due to heavy rain, which could eventually lead to accidents.

Meanwhile, officials from the infrastructure-II division of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority said that waterlogging was relatively lower on Saturday as the city did not receive heavy rain in a short span of time.

“Gurugram received heavy rain once in the morning and late afternoon, but mostly throughout the day, it was drizzling. Due to this, water did not accumulate at one particular point for long and could flow into the stormwater drains easily. This time, water receded quickly from one of our regular spots, Medanta underpass, where water accumulates every time (it rains). Water receded quickly from most roads today (Saturday) as it drizzled mostly,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

Explaining reasons behind the decrease in waterlogging this time, the GMDA official said that during repair work after the first spell of rain this monsoon, GMDA found that walls were built in stormwater drains due to which flow was affected.

“We had sent cameras down the manhole near Medanta, when we found that almost three walls had been created due to accumulation of dirt and waste, which affected flow of stormwater. We also made sure that on-ground teams clean fallen leaves and other materials blocking the openings of drains beside the roads immediately,” the official said.

Besides these measures, super-sucker machines and dewatering pump sets were also used. In 2019, the GMDA had placed eight dewatering pump sets, four tractor-mounted suction pumps, one earthmover, two super-sucker machines, and 5,000 gunny bags at a flood control room in Sector 53. About 10 people worked there round-the-clock, in shifts, to serve as a control room to handle waterlogging problems.