Heavy rain leaves Gurugram waterlogged once again

Residents and commuters said there was no respite even on Saturday as water pumps were not used by the civic agencies to pump out water from the affected areas along Dwarka Expressway, Pataudi and sectors 10 and 23

Saturday’s rain worsened the waterlogging in several parts of the city that were already reeling from inundated roads and localities following rain over the past 48 hours. Apart from the usual waterlogging spots on arterial roads, even internal roads were waterlogged on Saturday after city received 37.5mm of rain over 12 hours ending 4.30pm.

A waterlogged stretch on NH-48 in Gurugram on Saturday. (Parveen Kumar/ HT)

Residents and commuters said there was no respite even on Saturday as water pumps were not used by the civic agencies to pump out water from the affected areas along Dwarka Expressway, Pataudi and sectors 10 and 23. Although no major traffic congestion was reported in the city on Saturday, the traffic situation was dire on Friday evening, said traffic police officers.

Commuters said they were stuck on roads for over five hours on Friday evening after all major intersections became waterlogged.

They shared pictures and videos of jams on social media platforms and recalled “Gurujam”, the mammoth gridlock of 2016 on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, where commuters were stuck for nearly two days after the city received a rainfall of 52mm over the course of a single day.

Ketan Sharma a resident of Sector 69, said that it took him over four hours to cover Golf Course on Friday night. “The vehicles were hardly moving and panic had griped commuters as they feared a rerun of the gridlock of 2016 when people had spent over 17 hours stuck on expressway,” he said.

Sudeep Mahajan a resident of Uppal Southend in Sector 49 said Friday evening’s snarl on the Delhi-Jaipur highway near Narsingpur was terrible. “The cars were submerged and many vehicles had broke down leading to major congestion on the stretch. People drove towards Souther Peripheral Road and Sector 10 to escape the snarl but the situation was the same everywhere. It took me over four hours to cover 5km on Friday,” he said.

The major affected areas were Narsinghpur, Golf Course Road Extension, AIT Chowk, Sohna Road, Subhash Chowk, Sector 45, Sector 54, Vatika Chowk, Sector 100- 104, Pataudi Chowk, Sector 10, Udyog Vihar, Sector 38 and Sector 51, said traffic police.

Gurugram deputy commissioner (DC) Nishant Kumar Yadav on Friday directed officials to constitute monitoring teams to check waterlogging and also to press additional water pumps into use. “Underpasses and subways were not affected and teams were on the ground to monitor traffic situation. The teams had left spots only after all water was removed,” he said.

India Meteorological Department officials said the maximum temperature on Saturday was 30.7 degrees Celsius and the minimum was 25.7 degrees Celsius. The weather scientists said there is a forecast of cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers for Sunday.

Gurugram on Friday received 73mm rainfall, following which water started accumulating on key arterial roads and even internal sector roads. The situation was further complicated as the adjoining tehsils of Gurugram also received heavy rainfall on Friday.

Despite several initiatives, the city still has 112 critical waterlogging points. Most of them are on or around the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

The situation was worse on the Dwarka Expressway, said residents.

Sunil Sareen, president, Imperial Gardens in Sector 102 residents’ body, said the stretch between Basai Road and Sector 102 is pothole riddled. “At one of the hospitals on the stretch, patients could not enter as the main road was waterlogged. No one is even bothered to look at the condition of roads in the area which requires urgent attention,” he said.