Waterlogging woes to be sorted by next monsoon

Gurgaon: The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) is set to reconstruct a damaged 1,500-metre stretch of the master stormwater drain near Basai Chowk that may resolve the recurrent waterlogging woes of the city’s low-lying Sectors 9 and 9A by the next monsoon. The GMDA’s core planning cell, senior officials said, has approved Rs 13 crore for the work.
The master drain between Umang Bhardwaj Chowk and the railway culvert was damaged by a private agency during the construction of a flyover at Basai Chowk and a railway overbridge near Basai village. Water from all of Old Gurgaon, including Sectors 9 and 9A, drains out into the damaged stretch, GMDA officials said.
Pardeep Kumar, the chief engineer of GMDA (Infra-2), told TOI that the drain on the service road near Basai Chowk would be reconstructed. “We will reconstruct 1,500 metres of the master drain and Rs 13 crore has already been approved at the GMDA’s core planning cell meeting. We are trying to complete the tendering process within the next two months. We are hopeful that the work will be completed before the monsoon season next year,” he said.
For the past 18 months, residents of Sectors 9 and 9A have been demanding that the damaged master drain be fixed to address the waterlogging issue. They also raised the matter at a meeting of the CM grievance committee. In response, Khattar had directed the GMDA to come up with a proposal to solve the issue.
“Sector 9 is the lowest-lying portion of Old Gurgaon and does not have any internal drainage of its own, which exacerbates the waterlogging issue. However, GMDA can only undertake the master drainage work. The internal drainage has to be handled by the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon,” said Kumar.
Residents have welcomed the decision. “It is good that the authority is finally paying heed to our concern and fixing the master drain line that was damaged a year and a half ago during the construction of the flyover adjacent to our sector. Ideally, there should have been a plan in place before the flyover construction work commenced,” Lalit Suraj Bhola, general secretary of Sector 9A residents’ welfare association, said.