Traffic congestion on 28 spots after three hours rainfall in Gurugram, heavy rain expected today

Gurugram: Just 6mm of rain on Thursday was enough to gridlock several key stretches in Gurugram, with police personnel scrambling to free up the streets and remove vehicles that broke down due to the floods

Gurugram: Just 6mm of rain on Thursday was enough to gridlock several key stretches in Gurugram, with police personnel scrambling to free up the streets and remove vehicles that broke down due to the floods. Meanwhile, in the Capital, a strong bout of rain helped push the temperature down, with more relief likely on Friday and Saturday, according to the weather department.

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Ravinder Singh Tomar, Gurugram’s deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said the lanes on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway were the worst hit, apart from major intersections.

“Most complaints of traffic congestion were reported from Golf Course Road, Golf Course Extension Road, Panchgaon Chowk, Rampura Chowk, Bilaspur, Vatika Chowk, Sector 14, Sector 10, Sector 37 and Sheelta Mata mandir,” Tomar said.

Several private offices in the city asked the employees to leave work by 4pm to ensure they don’t get stuck in traffic.

Pawan Bansal, a resident of Sector 54, said he left office at Cyber City around 4pm, and it took him almost an hour-and-a-half to reach Golf Course Road, a 7km stretch that he said takes no more than 20-25 minutes.

“The entire Golf Course Road stretch was jam packed. Vehicles were stuck and people were driving on the wrong side and were trying to use the service lane that led to congestion. Heavy vehicles were also using the stretch and there was no one to manage traffic for more than an hour which resulted in worsening the situation,” he said.

Another resident of Malibu Town in Sector 49, said it took more than 40 minutes to cross Vatika Chowk as the traffic from Badshahpur, SPR and Golf Course Extension Road accumulated on the crossing.

Tomar said that police personnel from police stations of Manesar, Kherki Daula, Badshahpur, Sector 10, Sector 14, Rajendra Park, Udyog Vihar and Bilaspur were also on road managing traffic situations.

Heaviest rainfall in the city was witnessed in Wazirabad tehsil which saw an intense spell of 65 mm rain on Thursday afternoon that caused heavy waterlogging in areas on Golf Course road, roads in sector 57, on the Gurugram Faridabad road and in adjoining areas. Manesar 40 mm and Sohna 31 mm also received heavy rainfall on Thursday.

In Delhi, the maximum temperature on Thursday dropped to 31.2°C (down from 34.6°C on Wednesday), as the base station in Safdarjung logged just over 20mm. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasts light to moderate rainfall for Friday as well, while light rainfall is likely over Delhi on Saturday, owing to the monsoon trough now being closer to northwest India.

“Days and nights will be cooler [over the next couple of days] due to overcast conditions and on-and-off spells of rain across Delhi,” said RK Jenamani, IMD scientist.

Owing to these spells, Delhi’s maximum temperature is likely to hover between 31 and 32 degrees Celsius until Sunday, the IMD said.

After a strong start to the month, which saw Delhi receiving 117.2mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period till 8:30 am on July 1, there was a brief drop in rain activity in the first two weeks, before moderate spells of rainfall hit Delhi in the third week. Safdarjung, considered as Delhi’s base station for weather, recorded 30mm of rainfall in a 24-hour window between July 16 and 17 and a 56.6mm spell of rain between July 20 and 21. Till 5.30 pm on Thursday, Delhi had recorded 253.2mm of rainfall – in excess of the normal monthly mark of 210.6mm for July.