Showers wreak havoc in Millennium City

With the Badshahpur drain overflowing by 9.30am, most city roads were inundated and Gurugram traffic police officials issued updates on social media, cautioning commuters to avoid severely waterlogged stretches

An auto-rickshaw driver drowned, four underpasses were shut, almost all arterial roads got flooded, and traffic across the city was disrupted after Gurugram recorded a heavy spell of rain on Monday, exposing claims by agencies that arrangements were in place to deal with the annual problem during monsoon.

A traffic jam on Sohna Road due to heavy waterlogging near Subhash Chowk. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

The city received 185mm of rainfall over the past two days, which is almost 39% of the total rainfall it receives in monsoon, officials of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

In several residential colonies, neighbours were cut off from one another, while on major roads, at Subhash Chowk and Rajiv Chowk especially, pedestrians held hands to navigate the waist-deep rainwater.

Many parents were also spotted carrying children on their shoulders to school.

In Malibu Towne, Suncity and condominiums on MG Road, in DLF Phases 1 and 3, as well as in the office of the department of town and country planning (DTCP) in Sector 14, flooding at the entry and exit points trapped people on the premises.

With the Badshahpur drain overflowing by 9.30am, most city roads were inundated and Gurugram traffic police officials issued updates on social media, cautioning commuters to avoid severely waterlogged stretches in Suncity Township, Naharpur, Medanta underpass, Signature Towers, Iffco Chowk underpass, Galleria Market road, Kanhai Chowk, Wazirabad Chowk, Huda City Centre, Sector 4/7/9 Chowk, Himgiri Chowk, areas near the Mini Secretariat, Sheetla Mata Road, Bilaspur Chowk and Subhash Chowk.

According to a release issued by the district administration on Monday evening, 113 pump sets, 32 tankers, and 14 earthmovers were deployed at 113 critical water logging points in the city and over 127 complaints were received from residents at the administration’s control room.

In a release, deputy commissioner Yash Garg said of the 113 critical places identified by the administration, Hero Honda Chowk, sectors 4, 7, 9, 9A, 10, 10A and 15, and Palam Vihar were the worst affected.

At the two underpasses at Iffco Chowk and one at Rajiv Chowk, traffic police barricaded the entry points to keep motorists away, while at the Hero Honda Chowk underpass, they stacked sandbags to prevent commuters from entering, as all four were flooded.

The body of a 24-year-old auto-rickshaw driver was recovered from the Rajiv Chowk underpass. Divers took about two hours to locate the body, police said. The victim was identified by his single name Durgesh, a resident of Baldev Nagar in Sector 7. Police said they received a call from a bystander at around 4.30pm saying that a man drowned in the underpass.

Using motor pumps and suctions tankers, rainwater was cleared from the bidirectional underpass at Rajiv Chowk, Iffco Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk by evening and opened to traffic, said a release from the district administration.

Ravinder Singh Tomar, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said over 1,100 traffic police officials were deployed across the city from 5am. According to the police, a total of 4,500 personnel were deployed on city roads.

A portion of the roof of the Ambience Mall partially collapsed on Monday afternoon due to heavy rain. The mall management said no one was injured in the incident and that it took place due to excessive water accumulation on the roof.