Khandsa drain widening to resume by end of September

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority has said widening work of Badshahpur drain at Khandsa village would resume by the end of this month. The drain has to be widened in a 600 metre area at the village, as it is narrow and is unable to carry rainwater in the monsoon season.

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has said that the widening work of the Badshahpur drain at Khandsa village would resume by the end of this month. The drain has to be widened in a 600 metre area at the village, as it is narrow and is unable to carry rainwater in the monsoon season.

Officials said they are waiting for the monsoon to retreat before they can resume the work. (File Photo)

Officials said they are waiting for the monsoon to retreat before they can resume the work. Lalit Arora, superintending engineer, GMDA said that the widening work was stopped in June, but has to resume at the earliest as per the direction issued by the state government.

“We have been closely monitoring the flow of rainwater from Badshahpur drain, mainly at two points — Vatika Chowk on Sohna Road and Khandsa near the National Highway (near Hero Honda Chowk). These two are the bottleneck points and we are working to find a permanent fix for the perennial waterlogging issues here. Drain widening work at Khandsa will be completed by the end of this year. We are also working on a plan to create a separate drain from Vatika Chowk to Sector 89 railway culvert. We hope the two projects will go a long way in solving the city’s waterlogging problems,” Arora said.

“The drain has a chicken neck turn in the 600 metre portion at Khandsa, after crossing the National Highway near Hero Honda Chowk. We have installed six motors at a sump created near the highway to drain out rainwater in the event of an emergency,” said a GMDA official, who is not authorised to speak to the media. He added that it took months to demolish 35 structures deemed to be falling in alignment with the drain.

Extensive waterlogging in 2016, which grounded traffic on the National Highway, brought a bad name to the district administration and state government and forced the CM to take an aerial survey of the area and order widening of the drain.