Gurugram: Rain causes traffic snarls on expressway

Hindustan Times

a day ago

Early morning rain on Monday waterlogged several locations across Gurugram and caused severe traffic jams on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway, delaying commuters going towards Delhi by at least 30 to 40 minutes. Gurugram saw 10.5mm rainfall between 5.30pm on Sunday and 8.30am on Monday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Traffic congestion on NH 48 in Gurugram on Monday. (Parveen Kumar/HT photo)
The most severe snarl was from the Sirhaul border till Rajiv Chowk, which was caused by waterlogging and aggravated after a truck broke down on the elevated section near Signature Tower. The Gurugram traffic police said they had already deployed personnel at key locations across the city in anticipation of traffic jams caused by rainfall, and the congestion was cleared quickly.
'We dispatched a crane to tow away the truck but it took time to reach the spot due to long vehicle queues,' said a traffic official. 'All the snarls were cleared soon and the broken vehicle was removed using a crane,' said deputy commissioner of police Rajesh Kumar Mohan.
The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram said that while waterlogging occurred in various places across the city, the accumulated water was only a few inches in depth and was cleared out quickly. 'We had cleaned sewers and drains at most of the places ahead of the monsoon, which helped water recede quickly,' said an MCG official.
Gurugram recorded a maximum temperature of 33.8 degrees Celsius (°C) and a minimum of 22.4°C on Monday. The city's AQI was in the moderate category (104) on Monday. IMD said there was a possibility of thunderstorms and lightning with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places in Haryana on Tuesday.
Traffic jams
Aside from the Sirhaul border to Rajiv Chowk traffic jam, the stretch between Khandsa and the cloverleaf intersection was also heavily congested. The service lane along this road also got congested when vehicles entered it to avoid the jam on the main road. The service lane along the Dwarka Expressway also got heavily congested.
Kunal Yadav, a lawyer who travels to Gurugram civil court from Sohna every day, said it took him 20 minutes just to cross Rajiv Chowk and enter the court to park his car — a stretch of 200 metres. 'The intersection was completely jammed and vehicles were not able to move in any direction,' he said.
Officials said that potholes and uneven roads near Shankar Chowk further slowed down traffic on the expressway. Traffic inspector Ashin Khan said that the stretch near Narsinghpur was waterlogged. 'The vehicles were moving slowly between Khandsa and the cloverleaf intersection,' Khan said.
Waterlogging across city
Sheetla Mata road, the sectors 5, 9 and 14 roads, and the stretch of MG Road in Old Gurugram also faced waterlogging but the water was drained out soon. The Sheetla colony entrance, New railway road and Bus stand road were other locations where commuters faced waterlogging. The rainwater also broke up garbage piles and scattered garbage on the road.
Neelam Chaudhary, a Sector 8 resident, said there was waterlogging everywhere in the morning but it got cleared in the next couple of hours. 'However, the rain caused uncollected garbage to get scattered on the road at several locations. It caused many problems for residents and commuters as even after water was drained out, there was litter all around left behind on the road,' she added.
Prince Arora, an executive of an automobile showroom in Sector 15, said the rain caused severe waterlogging on internal roads. 'Though the rainwater was drained out from the main roads, conditions of internal roads remained poor,' he said. Arora said that MG Road near the Sector 14 government girls' college gets waterlogged during every rainfall. 'It takes days for water to drain out even after a small spell of rain,' he said.