The tall claims made by HUDA regarding widening of Badshahpur drain in Gurgaon before the monsoon to ensure smooth drainage of rainwater fell flat on Tuesday when the city received 128mm of rain. Gurgaon News
Waterlogged roads, chaos and confusion prevailed everywhere with office-goers stranded for hours in traffic jams. Pedestrians had to wade through knee-length water at certain places.
Many underpasses and subways built across the city were rendered unusable as they were inundated with water. “It usually takes me 40 minutes to reach my office in Cyber City from Sohna Road, but today it took me 2 hours 40 minutes. One day of rain, and the entire city turns into a mess,” said Amit Gupta, an IT executive and a resident.
To ensure minimum waterlogging, HUDA had made temporary arrangements at Khandsa in June this year. HUDA had installed additional pipelines in a 600-metre portion of the Badshahpur drain at Khandsa village after it failed to remove structures encroaching the space. It was to build a concrete drain there.
The drain’s width in the 600-metre portion is 10 metres and the plan was to widen it by an additional 10 metres on each side.
The authority had identified 72 fully built and occupied houses on both sides of the drain, but could remove only 33 of them on one side by June.
So, with the monsoon’s arrival, it installed two pipelines and put six motors at sump well near the National Highway to pump out rainwater in case the sump overflows.
HUDA administrator Chander Shekhar Khare said, “We had no time to construct a concrete drain in the village as the monsoon arrived. Hence, we had to make do with temporary arrangements.”
