Gurugram drowns as drainage plan delayed by over a year

A ‘comprehensive drainage plan’ for the city, conceived by the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority in May last year, which envisaged a long-term plan to deal with repeated monsoon flooding in Gurugram, has been delayed due to prolonged talks with stakeholders that stretched out to over several months in the second half of 2019, and then due to the outbreak of Covid-19 early this year, officials privy to the matter said on Thursday.

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Officials in the GMDA’s infrastructure-2 division (which deals with water supply, sewerage, and drainage) said the plan which was also approved by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, proposes the construction of recharge wells, water harvesting structures and focuses on building stormwater drains to carry rainwater as part of its strategy to fix Gurugram’s monsoon woes.

The proposal identified the Badshahpur drain, which runs from Ghata to Najafgarh, as most critical for channeling the monsoon run-off. “Gurugram’s total stormwater catchment area, including Aravalli foothills, is about 50,000 hectares,” the proposal states, adding that the Badshahpur drain carries the run-off from almost half of this catchment area, making it a vital natural resource. However, given that the drain’s carrying capacity has been severely hindered due to encroachments and increased concretisation in recent years, the authority had proposed to build a parallel 2.5 km-long open drain, and another 3km box drain to connect Vatika Chowk to NH48, to channel the run-off that the Badshahpur drain can no longer accommodate. The work on the drains was supposed to start earlier this year but is still in the tendering process.

“This construction of the two drains, which will be known as Leg 4, is a long-term solution that will fix flooding issues in the city, but there was prolonged back and forth with the National Highways Authority of India in finalising the terms of agreement. The work was to commence earlier this year, but then we lost four months due to the outbreak Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown. The project is at a tendering stage now and should be completed within 18 to 24 months,” said Pradeep Kumar, chief engineer, GMDA.

The plan, which has a budget of ₹298 crore, is meant to be implemented in four phases over four years. Kumar also added that the plan will include construction of box drains, recharge wells and water harvesting structures along the Southern Peripheral Road, for which ground surveys have been conducted. The plan is unlikely to come to fruition completely before 2022, he added.

Based on the city’s topography, the GMDA had divided Gurugram into four zones— non-urbanised areas along the Gurugram-Faridabad Road up to Ghata village, areas lying east of Gwal Pahari in the Aravalli foothills, areas lying between Ghata and Sohna Road (beyond Sectors 58-67), and areas lying between Sohna Road and NH-48.

Given the delay in the construction of the two drains, earlier this year, the GMDA identified 35 ‘choke points’ in the city’s drainage system, officials said, and the authority undertook remedial measures to increase the drainage system’s carrying capacity in these areas. “This exercise largely paid off as despite heavy rainfall on Wednesday water-logging in areas, which used to become a challenge in monsoons in the last four or five years, such as MDI Chowk, Vatika Chowk or Hero Honda Chowk did not persist for a long time. However, unfortunately, new choke points have emerged in other parts, such as Golf Course Road, which could not handle the unprecedented downpour. That’s why the flooding happened in the last two days,” said Rajeev Bansal, superintending engineer, GMDA.

This view was echoed by VS Kundu, chief executive officer, GMDA, who said, “The new choke points will be investigated by a flood control committee comprising engineers from the GMDA, municipal corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and DLF. We have constituted the committee on Friday and an order will be issued regarding its formation tomorrow (Saturday). I will have a meeting with them in the next week, following which a field investigation will be conducted and a report will be filed with recommendations for long-term remedial measures.”

A senior GMDA official, seeking anonymity, however, disagreed with the GMDA’s approach on dealing with drainage during monsoon. “We are still looking at rainwater as something to be disposed of through stormwater drains. Stormwater drains are in bad shape. The infra division has done a good job in fixing some perennial choke points. However, because of poor vigilance during the lockdown, other areas have become prone to flooding, either because the drains haven’t been routinely de-silted or because of encroachments. This pattern will keep repeating itself until we understand that we don’t need a drainage plan, but a water management plan. We need to revive green belts and water bodies, and to stop construction in floodplains like Ghata village which have changed the hydrogeology of Gurugram,” the official said.