Heavy rain caused water-logging on multiple stretches and areas in Gurugram on Wednesday. Both vehicular traffic and pedestrian movement have been disrupted due to waterlogging on several roads. Commuters were stuck in massive traffic jams due to inundated roads.
According to the IMD, the sky will generally remain cloudy in Gurugram. The city may receive one or two spells of rain or thunderstorms over the next 2-3 days.
Morning rush hour traffic was affected and the police struggled to keep the vehicles moving. The policemen were seen standing in knee-deep water while struggling to keep traffic going.
Light rains started at around 12.30 am, but it gained momentum by 1.15 am and between 10.45 to 11.30 am, it turned into a heavy downpour. The traffic movement on the Delhi-Jaipur-Mumbai highway was severely hit due to waterlogging.
Nearly 70 per cent of the city was submerged in an average of 1.5 feet of water with the worst hit areas being IffCO Chowk, Sohna Road, NarsinghPur, Basai Chowk, Sohna Chowk, Sector 4-7, Hanuman Chowk, Bilaspur Chowk, Fazilpur Chowk, Vatika Chowk, Subhash Chowk, Baghtawar Chowk, Atul Kataria Chowk, Mahavir Chowk, Dundahera and Jawala Mill.
In an encouraging development, once again the traffic police were quick to issue online alerts via Twitter about severely affected areas and deploying staff to clear the jams.
"Traffic Alert: Water logging has been reported at Sohna Chowk. Our traffic officials are on the spot to facilitate traffic flow. Commuters are requested to plan their travel accordingly," read one of the series of alert messages tweeted by the traffic police.
"We were already alert when clouds were building up and took our spots as soon as it started raining. We stand in the open in such harsh conditions and try doing our best to clear traffic movements. But, things are difficult during rains. Vehicles move slowly due to much water on the roads," said a traffic cop at the old Delhi-Gurugram road.
Several residents took to Twitter to share their experiences and posted photos of waterlogging and traffic jams.
Office-goers in the city, too, faced a lot of inconvenience due to traffic disruptions.
"It's a perennial problem of this city as well as district administration. Roads drown every monsoon, in spite of scores of money spots to avert waterlogging. But still the local authorities don’t have any solutions. When they fail, they start a blame game on each other," complained Sachin, a commuter stuck in a massive traffic jam at the Atul Kataria Chowk.
Gurugram police commissioner KK Rao insisted that the authorities are doing their best to deal with the issue.