The tall claims of the municipal authorities in Gurgaon to have started pre-monsoon preparations on war footing were belied when various parts of the Millennium City witnessed severe waterlogging after just two hours of rain on Friday.

In many localities storm water drain inlets were either overflowing or blocked.  Waterlogging was seen at a number of key intersections such as Sohna Road, Manesar, Sushant Lok, Cyber City, Udyog Vihar,

Sector-12, Sector-7, Sukhrali, old Gurgaon Road and a few areas in New Gurgaon. Residents of Gurgaon also started posting photos of waterlogging at various points in the city on twitter. 

While the rain brought some relief from the hot and humid weather, the waterlogging caused misery for motorists. Akash Sharma, a resident of Palam Vihar, said due to construction on Old Delhi road and water everywhere it’s hard to drive. “One doesn’t know where the potholes are located. This can cause accidents,” said Sharma.

Isha, a resident of Sukhrali, said it is hard to walk on the road as drains are overflowing. “We have complained about it. Hope the authorities do something,” she said.

The district administration has set up teams to ensure that there is no water-logging anywhere on the two national highways passing  through the district ~ Delhi-Gurugram Expressway and Sohna-Alwar Highway ~ and other areas such as Hero Honda Chowk, Rajeev Chowk, IFFCO Chowk, Subhash Chowk, Vatika Chowk, Bus Stand in Old Gurgaon, Mini Secretariat, General Hospital in Civil Lines and Gurgaon Railway station. The aim is to have smooth traffic movement irrespective of the amounts of rain.

Officials from NHAI, Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, HUDA, Tehsildar, Traffic Police department, toll, public works department and irrigation will be part of the teams. “A team’s duty is to ensure that there are no potholes on the stretches assigned to them, enough suction pumps to drain out the accumulated water, cranes to tow away broken down vehicles, etc. The committees will submit their action plans to the sub-divisional magistrate. It is because the teams were working that we didn’t have the huge traffic jams that we used to witness. And at most places rain water was drained away in just a few hours,” said an official.