Rainwater enters Gurugram homes, three underpasses closed

Heavy rain on Monday morning left most areas of Gurugram heavily waterlogged. At least three underpasses — at Rajiv Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, and Iffco Chowk — were closed due to rainwater accumulation and the city’s main stormwater drain at Badshahpur is running at full capacity.

At both the Iffco Chowk and Medanta underpass, near Rajiv Chowk, traffic police barricaded entry points, while at Hero Honda Chowk underpass, they stacked sandbags to prevent commuters from entering the road.

The Signature Tower underpass is also waterlogged, and traffic police said that they are monitoring the situation closely and may close the road if it does not stop raining by noon.

Rainwater also entered low-lying houses in DLF phases 1 and 3, and Suncity Township in the morning.

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Morning traffic was also hit by waterlogging, with Sohna Road, Mehrauli-Gurgaon (MG) Road, Rajiv Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, CH Bakhtawar Singh Road, Jharsa Chowk, Bakhtawar Chowk the worst-affected. Traffic on the main carriageways of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, however, largely remained unaffected, barring the Narsinghpur-Khandsa stretch, opposite Badshahpur drain, which is heavily inundated with rainwater.

At each of these stretches, commuters said they took 15-30 minutes to cross the affected areas.

Gurugram traffic police issued regular updates over social media regarding areas that are severely waterlogged, including Suncity Township, Iffco Chowk, Naharpur, Hero Honda Chowk, Medanta underpass, Signature Towers, Iffco Chowk underpass, Galleria Market Road, Kanhai Chowk, Wazirabad Chowk, HUDA City Centre, Sector 4/7/9 Chowk, Himgiri Chowk, the area around Mini Secretariat, Basai Road and cautioned commuters to avoid these stretches and plan their travel accordingly.

According to an Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) update from its Chandigarh office, “Moderate to intense rain likely over parts of Panipat, Sonipat, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Gurgaon, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Ambala districts & Light to Moderate rain likely over parts of Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Jind, Mewat, Palwal, Faridabad, Mahendragarh, Rewari districts and adjoining areas during next 2-3 hours.”. The update was issued for Monday morning (8.30am till 11.30am).

District administration officials also issued alerts over various Whatsapp groups around 7am, alerting residents that the Badshashpur drain is running at full capacity.

“Badshahpur drain (running) at full capacity. Till its level comes down there will be waterlogging as it is the (main) source for drainage of water. Let’s hope rain intensity weakens or stops,” the alert shared by deputy commissioner Yash Garg read.

Badshahpur drain carries nearly 70% of Gurugram’s rainwater.