Around 48 hours after the Hero Honda Chowk underpass was inundated with water following record-breaking rainfall, it was opened to traffic on Thursday.
Three vehicles, including two pick up vans and a car, were found sunk in the underpass after the water was drained out.
Superintending Engineering, Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), Lalit Arora, said that eight fire tenders and many pump sets were pressed into service to drain out the water from the underpass which was completely submerged.
“A staff of over 50 people from the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, the National Highways Authority of India and the GMDA worked tirelessly since Tuesday evening to drain out the water and clear it for the traffic. It contained around 40-50 million litres water,” said Mr. Arora. He said that three vehicles were found sunk and were pulled out.
Mr. Arora said a committee was also constituted by the GMDA to ascertain the causes for the flooding and suggest remedial measures. GMDA, CEO, V. Umashankar said that all the underpasses on the Gurugram-Delhi Expressway would be taken over by the agency to avoid multiplicity of the authority.
130mm rainfall in 6 hrs
Deputy Commissioner, Vinay Pratap Singh, said the administration was prepared for the normal rainfall, but the city received around 130 mm of rainfall in just six hours. Mr. Singh said that he went around the city on Tuesday and found that four points — Hero Honda Chowk, Medanta underpass, Narsinghpur and Subhash Chowk — to be the worst hit. On the measures to avoid the same, Mr. Singh said the project for constructing check dams was approved and would kick-off in December. He said that efforts were also on to revive the water bodies and create artificial water bodies in Sector 72.
A plan to dug out another drain parallel to the Badshahpur drain to be used in case of high rainfall, he added. Mr. Singh said there was no more land-related issues regarding the widening of the Badshahpur drain and it would have a capacity of around 1,500 cusecs after it was completed. The Badshahpur drain now has a capacity of around 700 cusecs.
