What led to flooding at Hero Honda Chowk? GMDA sets up panel to analyse

GURUGRAM: Three days after the city experienced its heaviest rainfall — around 128mm — in 10 years, which led to flooding at Hero Honda Chowk, the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) on Friday constituted a three-member committee to study the reasons behind waterlogging in the area and submit a report.
The committee members include GMDA’s superintending engineer Lalit Arora, retired chief engineer of Huda KK Bugra and NHAI’s project director Ashok Sharma. According to the members, they will survey drainage in the area, flow of the water, depth of the drain at every five metres and the source of water.

The GMDA has also appointed an agency to survey the storm water drains between Hero Honda Chowk and Rajiv Chowk, and Subhash Chowk and Sector 10.

“We have started our survey at Hero Honda Chowk and will submit the report once we identify the reason behind the waterlogging,” Arora said.

However, sources revealed that the report is expected to be submitted by this weekend. Once the cause behind the waterlogging is identified, the committee will come up with suggestions to address the issue.

Officials in know of the matter claim that the substantial difference in the level of the drain between Subhash Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk results in the flood-like situation.

Tuesday’s rain and waterlogging saw the local agencies and the NHAI at loggerheads, while the GMDA and the district administration claimed that the underpass got flooded because the four pump sets installed by NHAI at Hero Honda Chowk did not work properly.

NHAI officials, on the other hand, refuted the allegation and said the flooding happened because GMDA had failed to connect the underpass’s drains with the main drainage passing through Sector 10.

Deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh said, “We’re going to write to the NHAI chairman, demanding the agency hands over maintenance of the underpasses to us. If there’s a need for architectural changes in the underpasses to ensure water doesn’t collect in them, it will be done.”