More than 30 minutes of heavy rain led to waterlogging and traffic jams in several parts of the Millennium City on Thursday afternoon, washing away the claims of the administration regarding their preparedness for the monsoon. It, however, brought a welcome relief from the sweltering heat.
A heavy spell of rain that started around 3 p.m. led to waterlogging at several perennial flooding points in the city such as Hero Honda Chowk, Subhash Chowk, IFFCO Chowk, Sector 15 Part-II, Sohna Road and Old Delhi Road. It slowed down traffic resulting in snarls and jams.
Traffic police tweets
Soon after the rain, the Gurugram Traffic Police tweeted from its official handle informing the residents about the waterlogged roads and asking them to plan their travel accordingly. “waterlogging has been reported from Hero Honda Chowk to Himgiri Chowk. Our officials are on the spot to facilitate traffic flow. Commuters are requested to plan their travel accordingly,” said one such tweet from the Gurugram Traffic Police.
The rain also resulted in power outages in many parts of the city, forcing the residents to take to Twitter to vent their ire.
Referring to a newspaper report quoting Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar saying that Gurugram’s flooding has been take care of, a tweet said: “Gurgavan/Gurgaon/Gurugram flooded in one short spells of rain. No electricity as well. (sic)”.
Claiming that 90 mm rainfall in an hour was not moderate, Deputy Commissioner Amit Khatri said the preparedness of the administration was much better in many aspects and there was no flooding of underpasses this time around. He added that there was waterlogging on Delhi-Jaipur carriage of Delhi-Gurugram Expressway near Narsinghpur due to three non-operative pumps of the NHAI. It was, therefore, decided to double the capacity. He said that four more water pumps would be installed by the MCG at this point.
“The second critical point was Sohna Road. We were limited in our preparedness on this road due to ongoing construction,” he added.