The Badshahpur drain is a topic of interest for multiple sections of Gurugram’s citizenry. Officials, environmentalists and residents have all shown a lot of concern for the age-old waterway, which is commonly held to be the city’s best solution against urban floods, which seem to occur every year despite promises by authorities.

The mechanics of this phenomenon are quite simple: when rain falls in Gurugram, the natural topography of the region causes the water to flow toward Najafgarh in New Delhi, and the channel which allows this flow is the Badshahpur drain. In order to smoothly carry the run-off, the drain needs to have enough width and depth, both of which the drain has lost in recent years due to urban expansion and encroachments. Even the National Green Tribunal(NGT) has upheld the significance of the drain and called for its restoration.

The maximum loss of space has occurred in Sector 37-B’s Khandsa village, where the size of the drain has been squeezed to just 10 metres due to densely packed informal housing. After 2016’s Gurujam, authorities identified this area to be the foremost cause for severe flooding that year. Since then, the HSVP has been racing against the clock to find an engineering solution to the issue. Last week, administrator Chander Shekhar Khare finally stated that the issue will be resolved by April 30, after a delay of two years.

While this bears promise for the city at large, Khandsa’s residents have grown tired of the HSVP’s delayed action to fix the drain. A walk through Khandsa village recently revealed a deep gash of excavation running through its centre, where the authority will soon lay two large, underground culverts to channel rainwater. The culverts are currently lying exposed by the side, and the construction work, which began in 2016, has thrown the village into a state of perpetual disrepair.

“The HSVP has dug this huge pit at the centre of the village. They say it is to prevent flooding, but every monsoon the water collects here and enters our own homes before anyone else’s,” said Ram Kumar Fauji, a senior citizen living in Khandsa. After rains, the water becomes stagnant and emits a foul stench, he said, adding that the stagnant water attracts swarms of mosquitoes. Residents pointed out that there is an exceptionally high incidence of malaria and dengue during months of rain. “People have stopped sending their children out to play. It gets quite filthy,” Fauji said.

Residents say that monsoons have been particularly troublesome for them since the repair work began. “As of now there is no drain here, there is only this construction site,” said Shripal Sharma, a resident. He added, “Earlier, there would be some waterlogging but after the rains the water would slowly flow out. Now it just stays here. There is no concrete road at the centre of the village, so the roads get mucky with the flood water. I have to walk home with dirty shoes every day.” With the repair work ongoing, there is also no motorable road at the centre of the village and residents have taken to parking their vehicles at a distance.

The construction site, when abandoned, gets turned into a dumping ground for the village’s trash and construction waste. When the work does begin, then there is the constant din of earthmovers and other construction machinery, which operate at odd hours. Puran Chand, another resident, said he couldn’t sleep because of the sound of an excavator digging into the earth. “Every once in a while, they will shift some mud from one spot to another. They are just idling around. It is ruining my morning routine,” said Chand.

Residents, however, would like to believe that this state of neglect is nearing its end. “Every year they say that the work will finish before the rains. For the first time, however, the authorities have committed to a deadline. However, I won’t believe it until they put those pipes underground and lay nice layer of cement over it,” Fauji said. If not, people in Khandsa are looking at yet another troubled monsoon.

(Prayag Arora Desai is a reporter with the Gurugram bureau and covers environment, transportation, GMDA and NCRPB)

First Published: Mar 24, 2019 02:34 IST