Waterlogging at Hero Honda Chowk cripples traffic again

GURGAON: A heavy shower on Monday morning brought the city to its knees yet again, with waterlogging reducing traffic to a crawl at Hero Honda Chowk and leaving commuters stranded or struggling to wade through kneedeep water. A gridlock, extending from Manesar to Rajiv Chowk, resulted in the commuters taking more than two hours to navigate the stretch.

The situation could have been just as worse as Friday when heavy rains and waterlogging choked nearly all city roads for seven hours. However, heavy police presence on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway ensured that the stretch from Signature Towers to Sirhaul toll plaza remained free of congestion.

On Monday, traffic was thrown out of gear between 8.30am and 10am at the ManesarRajiv Chowk stretch. Normalcy was restored only after a large contingent of police and civic officials including police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar and Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) commissioner V Umashankar reached Hero Honda Chowk around 9.15am and directed traffic.

Khirwar said that from 5 am onwards, traffic police personnel were deputed around the city to ensure traffic movement remains uninterrupted.

“To ensure the situation does not spiral out of control, police officers were deputed on all major roads before rush hour. This enabled us to keep to traffic disruptions to a minimum and direct the movement of vehicles effectively,” Khirwar said.

The MCG commissioner said the waterlogging problem that has plagued the city for long will be reduced to a great extent by next month.