With the Millennium City coming to a standstill following heavy rains leading to massive traffic jams, the International Road Federation (IRF) today expressed deep concern and called for concerted efforts, both long-term and short-term, to address the problem.
A spell of monsoon showers, which is welcomed otherwise, has brought the Millennium City to its knees due to severe water-logging resulting in long traffic jams, leaving millions of commuters, including office-goers, stranded.
"Due to almost non-functioning of storm water drains and inadequate sewage system, Gurgaon roads get water-logged each Monsoon resulting in potholes, sometimes moon craters. Water accumulates at unexpected places spelling danger for both motorists and pedestrians," IRF Chairman K K Kapila said.
Road network in Gurgaon encompasses different zones of authority like Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, Public Works Department, Haryana Urban Development Authority, private builders and the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway under the National Highways Authority of India.
"Each year after the monsoon, these agencies tend to pass the buck and thereby virtually disowning their own responsibility, as a result there is acute water-logging, deep potholes, portions of the roads getting sub-merged and side-walks becoming unusable, causing immense hardship to the general public," he said.
Kapila said apart from creating a unified body comprising all these authorities to tackle the drainage and water-logging problems of Gurgaon with representatives from each of the agencies initiating appropriate long-term as well as short-term measures, there is an urgent need to find immediate solution to contain the damage due to flooding of roads.
"With continued urbanisation, the drains are either choked or ineffective to carry the surface water to the deep storm water drains, which also lack adequate capacity. For this, a long-term solution with proper network of drainage lines with adequate capacity for storm water and sewage drains is an immediate necessity," he said.
Immediate short-term measures must also be undertaken at locations where roads have been flooded, the global road safety organisation said.
"Delhi Metro Rail and Rapid Metro, Gurgaon, despite
having rain water harvesting system on various routes, also need a separate drainage system to channelise rainwater released from the elevated tracks," Kapila said.
"The Metro networks' elevated tracks are also partially adding to the city's drainage problems, as rainwater from the elevated structures flows with force on roads, creating more problems for choked city drains and causing hazards to pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Proper disposal of this water would reduce water-logging on several stretches in the city," he said.
Thousands of office-goers and other commuters were today stranded in Gurgaon as heavy rains led to water-logging on National Highway-8 causing massive traffic jams, forcing authorities to shut down schools in Delhi's satellite city while some offices too declared it an off.
Many motorists abandoned their vehicles and waded through knee-deep water which accumulated on both the carriageways of Delhi-Jaipur road, including Hero Honda Chowk, bringing traffic to a standstill with the tailback extending up to 15-20 kilometres.
