Heavy rain pours misery on road users
Several major roads in Noida, Ghaziabad waterlogged, major snarls reported on key arterial stretches
GHAZIABAD/NOIDA: The morning downpour in Noida and Ghaziabad led to waterlogging on several main roads of the two cities on Wednesday. As a result, commuters had a difficult time between 8am and 10am as traffic came to a crawl on waterlogged stretches.
In Ghaziabad, the worst affected areas were Vaishali, Indirapuram, Govindpuram, and GT Road. In neighbouring Noida, areas such as Labour Chowk, underpass at Mamura metro bridge in Sector 61, Vishwakarma Marg, and Electronic City metro station were highly affected. Heavy waterlogging was also reported from the stretch near Fortis hospital and Haldwani mod in Greater Noida, officials said.
In Ghaziabad, residents from prime localities of Indirapuram, Vasundhara and Vaishali, among others, said they had to face hardships due to the heavy waterlogging.
“There was heavy waterlogging on several roads in Indirapuram. The worst affected stretch was from Mangal Bazaar Chowk to Rail Vihar that witnessed almost kneedeep waterlogging. The other areas like Niti Khand and Shakti Khand were also affected. In Shakti Khand 1, water even entered some houses,” said Mohan Sangwan, a resident of Shakti Khand in Indirapuram.
“Commuters suffered a lot while reaching their workplaces due to heavily waterlogged roads. Pockets of Ahimsa Khand 2, Vaibhav Khand and near Shipra Sun City were also waterlogged as these are lowlying areas,” said Alok Kumar, a resident of Arihant Harmony in Ahimsa Khand 2, Indirapuram.
Residents who travelled outside the city also faced major issues.
“I was travelling to Bulandshahr
from Vaishali and got stuck at Lal Kuan intersection (GT Road) which was heavily waterlogged. Vehicles were hardly moving. It took more than 30 minutes of cross the intersection. In Vaishali, waterlogging was prevalent in sectors 1, 2, 3 and 4,” said BK Pandey, resident of Vaishali.
Govindpuram resident Pratibha Rai also complained of heavy waterlogging on main road leading to Harsaon police lines. “I was to go to a school for submission of forms for my daughter. Due to heavy waterlogging, my car got stuck in water and we had to return home,” she said.
The weather analysts, meanwhile, said that there are chances of light to moderate rains on Thursday.
According to the India Meteorological Department, Ghaziabad recorded an average rainfall of 12mm over the past 24 hours (between 5.30pm Tuesday and 5.30pm Wednesday). The automatic weather monitoring station at CDO Ghaziabad did not get a record for morning rainfall.
According to IMD, Ghaziabad has so far recorded 178.2mm of rainfall since June 1 till date, which is 60% deficient, against expected 448.9mm.
Officials of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation said that they have deployed teams in areas like Kavi Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Vaishali, among others.
“The team continued their work throughout the day. We even roped in jetting machines to clear off water from roads. The volume of rainwater was high. But most of the waterlogged areas were got cleared by evening,” said Pramod Kumar, additional municipal commissioner.
The officials of the Ghaziabad development authority, which maintains Indirapuram locality, said that pumps were deployed to clear the waterlogged areas. “The intensity of rain was high that caused waterlogging in some areas. Our teams worked continuously to clear water from lowlying areas,” said AK Chaudhary, executive engineer of the authority.
In Noida too, commuters had to deal with waterlogged
stretches and potholes.
With some of the major roads waterlogged, commuters sought alternative routes while the broken roads in some areas added to their discomfort.
“Several stretches of Vishwakarma Marg were waterlogged and there were also some potholes. So, I had to be very attentive while going towards Indirapuram in the morning. On the way, I took shelter near Sector 59 metro station as the underpass was fully waterlogged. Later, I took a longer route to avoid the underpass,”said Vaibhav Maheshwari, who commuted towards Indirapuram on a twowheeler from Noida’s Sector
75.
“The traffic towards Delhi was very slow during the morning hours. I use Noida bypass road from Vishwakarma Marg to reach Delhi. But the connecting route is broken with big potholes which fill up during the rains and become dangerous for driving,” said Sangeeta Mishra, another commuter going to Delhi for work.
Traffic police officials said that the vehicles were moving very slow due to the waterlogging in some areas, including the road near Fortis hospital, Sector 61 underpass and Labour Chowk, among others. “However, at DND cut and Mahamaya Flyover, the traffic
was normal as the water was pumped out before 8am,” said an official from the Noida traffic police department.
According to IMD, the city recorded 35mm of rainfall between 8.30am and 5.30pm on Wednesday. So far, Noida has been rainfall deficient. The city has received about 65% deficient rainfall since June 1 till date, the IMD data showed. It has so far seen 155mm of rainfall against the expected 448.9mm.
Meanwhile, officials of the Noida authority said that several workers were rushed to clear the roads.
“Since the rainfall was heavy, there were some instances of waterlogging. But all our workers were in the field sorting out the issues. At the Sector 61 underpass towards Mamura, there are pumps installed but we must also understand that there will be some retention time whenever there is a heavy rainfall. The roads where waterlogging happened were later cleared off water, and we are also working on such spots,” said PK Kaushik, general manager, Noida authority.
Meanwhile, the weather analysts said that there are chances of light to moderate rains on Thursday too.
“Noida may also see rainfall on Thursday. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 31 and 25°C,” said an IMD official.
“On Wednesday, Delhi and the National Capital Region received excessive moisture intrusion from both the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. This led to heavy rains. The moisture is still there, so there is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall on Thursday,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president (meteorology and climate change), Skymet.
According to the India Meteorological Department, the rainfall below 1.5mm is considered very light, between 1.5mm and 15mm is light, 15mm and 64mm as moderate, and 64mm and 110mm as heavy.