Monsoon woes: Gurugram FACES WATERLOGGING, TRAFFIC JAMS

GURUGRAM: The rain on Thursday evening was set to bring a reprieve for citizens suffering from scorching heat and humidity but the city's infrastructure again failed to cope with a few millimetres of rain. Like always, various parts of the city faced excessive waterlogging, traffic jams and long duration of power outages. In a telling statement to city's crumbling infrastructure, the newly built sector road near the IFFCO Chowk caved in for the second time.

With the works of Badshahpur drain not completed this year, the authorities have stationed 40 pumps to channel out the water. Majority of these pumps will be stationed at National Highway-8 . The Delhi- Jaipur highway bore the brunt of excessive water logging on July 29, 2016, when just 46 millimetres of rain stalled the traffic at the busy highway for more than 18 hours.

The Haryana government had planned to expand the Badshahpur drain that would have allowed the flow of water into the Najafgarh drain. Like the previous year, a large number of police officials will be deployed on the road to manage the traffic. According to officials, 485 law enforcement officials will be deployed at 26 sites. The Gurugrm Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has also set up a control room at Sector -29 where the officials can be contacted on 9999395748 for all the waterlogging complaints.

Even as the district administration may be preparing to deal with the challenges expected during monsoon, most of the residents still seem dissatisfied with the work done. “You can understand the level of preparedness when even Golf Course road that is expected to have one of the best infrastructures in the city gets water-logged. While major projects may have their difficulties, what is stopping the officials to clean the drains,” asked Rajesh Sethi, a city resident.