Two-hour rain spell leaves several areas waterlogged in Gurgaon

According to data from the district administration, Gurgaon received 19 mm rainfall till 5 pm. Traffic Police officials said waterlogging was reported at Golf Course Road, Rajiv Chowk, IFFCO Chowk, MDI Chowk, MG Road, Signature Tower, Basai, Subhash Chowk, near Huda City Centre Metro station, Manesar bus stand, Hanuman Chowk, Sector 4/5 Chowk, Krishna Chowk, Sector 21/22 road, near Wazirabad traffic signal, AIT Chowk, Kanhai Chowk, near Mayfield Garden Chowk, Artemis Chowk, Sheetla Mata road, South City 1 and at stretches of NH-48.

“Some pockets of Gurgaon received heavy rainfall today and waterlogging issues were reported in several areas. In most of these, water levels receded within one-two hours. On Golf Course Road, one of the societies was pumping out a large volume of their internal stormwater which added to waterlogging on this stretch. Waterlogging was reported by Sector 28 residents & the GMDA team installed pump sets to address the issue. Similarly, pump sets were also deployed in Basai. Meanwhile, construction of additional road gullies is underway near Sun City society. No underpasses were flooded…,” said Vikram Singh, executive engineer, GMDA.

Waterlogging at Gurgaon’s Signature Chowk. (Photo: Traffic police)

According to experts, inadequate drainage infrastructure, urbanisation and disappearing water bodies and lakes due to concretisation, change in land-use patterns, disruption of natural drains, encroachment at stretches along stormwater drains and choked drainage lines were major reasons for flooding across the city every year.

Sewa Ram, an urban transport systems design expert and faculty member at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) in Delhi, said, “Over the years, concretisation has taken place either on top or in the route of natural drains, which blocks natural course of water… In several areas, drainage lines are choked due to construction debris or encroachment, so they do not have sufficient capacity to carry heavy surface runoff during monsoons. If the drainage network is discontinuous, roads will be submerged with rainwater. Drainage infrastructure has not been designed to withstand a high intensity of rainfall.”

At present, Gurgaon’s rainwater is disposed from three master stormwater drains — leg 1, leg 2 and leg 3 (Badshahpur drain), with Badshahpur drain accounting for over 60% of the drainage network carrying runoff from over 24,000 hectares of land. These collect rainwater and channel it into the Najafgarh drain in Delhi. Experts said Gurgaon, located at foothills of the Aravallis, earlier had hundreds of water bodies, lakes and bunds (embankments) — indigenous structures — in low-lying parts which acted as natural drainage columns by storing water, and prevented flooding.

According to a report from the district administration from 2018, Gurgaon had over 640 water bodies in 1956 which reduced to 251 by 2018.

One of the worst affected stretches is the service lane on Khandsa-Narsinghpur stretch on NH-48 and low-lying areas of Laxman Vihar and Sector 4A. Officials said water accumulates in these areas due to topography, adding that a long-term solution for Khandsa lies in the construction of leg 4 of the 5.5-km stormwater drain between Vatika Chowk and NH-48, whose tender has been floated recently.

Officials said flooding occurred due to heavy intensity of rainfall in a short span of time. “We are working on rejuvenating water bodies to solve waterlogging,” said an official.

Parts of South Delhi too received heavy rain Sunday morning. The city did not see any rain between 8.30 am on Saturday and 8.30 am on Sunday. After that, Palam, Ayanagar, and Pusa Road witnessed a heavy downpour.