For several years, monsoons in Delhi have consistently evoked two emotions among its residents: Joy of getting respite from the sweltering heat followed by disappointment at the failure of authorities in stopping waterlogging and traffic jams. The satellite towns near Delhi are also no exception as is evident from the 20-hour-long ‘gurujam’ experienced in Gurugram last week.
Every time it rains in Delhi, hundreds of people collectively lose thousands of hours stuck in traffic jams; miss their appointments, miss their flights and trains and miss several hours they could have spent working, or with their families. Today, after consecutive weeks of traffic woes, residents of Delhi thought twice before stepping out of their homes and have only one thing on their minds: How the Government authorities have failed the city and its residents.
“Be it Traffic Police which is responsible for regulating traffic, or PWD and municipal corporations which are responsible to ensure there is no waterlogging, there is no one in this city who is doing their job properly. Traffic lights don’t work even after minor rainfall, roads get waterlogged till the knees and potholes that mysteriously surface on the road further slowdown the traffic. Over the last couple of weeks, I must have spent more time stuck in traffic jam than I have spent with my family,” said Priyadarshan, a resident of Malviya Nagar.
Deepak Malhotra, who travels every day to Gurugram for work, said the traffic situation has gone worse in recent times. “There is lack of enforcement of traffic rules. On a busy road, people come on the wrong side, especially if there is waterlogging on one side of the road leading to complete gridlock on both sides. There is wrong parking, encroachment of roads by vendors and nobody does anything. Metro work on the Ring Road also affects the traffic, but it’s more due to other arbitrary construction. It seems like no one is doing their job in Delhi these days. Then it’s the people
as well who don’t follow traffic rules,” he said.
Every year, traffic officials identify spots prone to waterlogging and inform about the same to the road-owning agencies. Despite that, those very spots get inundated in water every single year. According to traffic officials, there is a surge in traffic complaints due to civic issues during the monsoons. “Due to rain, there are problems like potholes, uprooting of trees, caving-in of roads, waterlogging, etc, which lead to slowing down of traffic,” officials said.