The national capital and its satellite towns were hit by a familiar monsoon nightmare on Friday – waterlogged roads, vehicles crawling through flooded stretches and traffic jams stretching for kilometres – barely a week before Delhi hosts the 18th BRICS Summit.
As the rain intensified through the afternoon and evening, waterlogging was reported across Delhi and Gurugram, with several parts of Noida and Ghaziabad also affected. Noida’s KVK Chholas station had not updated its data to reflect Friday afternoon’s rainfall. Thousands of commuters were caught in the snarl for four to five hours. “There is no spot to even take a U-turn now. I have been trapped in my vehicle for the last three hours. “We found slow moving traffic from Iffco Chowk around 4pm. The deluge was not confined to the expressway. In Delhi, even stretches in and around Connaught Place were flooded, with visuals showing cars navigating waterlogged roads. Mahipalpur and the area around Subroto Park were badly affected. In Mahipalpur, children were seen playing in knee-deep rainwater, while near Subroto Park, water cascaded onto vehicles from a flyover. In Gurugram, the fragile drainage network once again came under strain. Videos shared by commuters on social media showed vehicles moving through flooded stretches on Sheetla Mata Road, with residents questioning the city’s monsoon preparedness. “Water gets accumulated in Vyapar Kendra, Krishna Chowk and various other blocks. The rain was intense across the region. Meteorologists attributed the spell to the monsoon trough. “A well-built low pressure area was present over southwest Uttar Pradesh, and the trough was moving towards the same region, while moving through Haryana, Punjab, and Delhi. The scenes once again raised questions over repeated claims of improved drainage and monsoon preparedness in the NCR. MCG commissioner Pradeep Dahiya, however, tried putting up a brave front despite the chaos in the city. “Instead of seasonal firefighting, we focused on targeted ground interventions.
The worst of the chaos unfolded on the expressway connecting Delhi and Gurugram, where a traffic snarl stretching nearly 10 kilometres left thousands of commuters trapped for hours. The jam began near Shiv Murti in Delhi’s Mahipalpur and stretched up to Udyog Vihar Phase IV in Gurugram by 6.30pm, according to Gurugram traffic police. Now, it’s 6.30pm but we have not been able to cross the Sirhaul toll plaza on the Delhi-Gurugram border, which is a distance of hardly about six kilometres,” he said. His vehicle was still around 200 metres from the plaza at the time he spoke to HT. Sheetla Mata Road, MG Road, Palam Vihar, NH-48 and internal roads in Manesar were among the worst affected. Residential areas including sectors 9A, 10, 15 Part 2, 17A and 31 reported accumulated water on internal roads and outside gates, bringing two-wheelers and smaller cars to a halt. “It took barely 45 minutes of rain for the entire stretch outside our colony to turn into an open canal. Every monsoon, the same promises are made about desilting, yet the outcome never changes,” said a resident of Sector 15 Part 2, requesting anonymity. Noida too saw water accumulation that slowed traffic on several busy stretches, including the Noida Expressway, DND approach, Kalindi Kunj Road, Pari Chowk, Gaur Chowk and roads around sectors 62, 63, 18 and 137. Delhi’s Safdarjung weather station recorded 32.6mm of rainfall between 8.30am and 5.30pm on Friday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Palam recorded 75.6mm, Narayana 54mm, Janakpuri 48.5mm and Lodhi Road 34.6mm during the same period. Gurugram received 44.5mm. Its latest available figure showed 0.5mm in the 24 hours ending at 8.30am. Water clearance times have dropped significantly across nearly 75% of identified hotspots, and we have already operationalised rainwater harvesting systems at 113 of the 184 designated locations, each designed to handle up to two lakh litres of runoff,” he said.
Several motorists HT spoke to said they could not cover even six kilometres in three hours. Looking at the scenario, it seems it may take two to three more hours before I may be able to cross this entire stretch,” said Vikas Kumar, who was travelling from Gurugram towards Delhi. Narayan Acharya, travelling by road from Gurugram to Kathmandu, said he had been stuck for two-and-a-half hours. The immediate trigger was severe waterlogging near Shiv Murti, Gurugram traffic police officials said. ACP (Gurugram traffic headquarters) Satyapal Yadav said traffic headed towards Delhi was diverted at Iffco Chowk towards Aya Nagar via MG Road. “We have diverted the traffic moving towards Delhi via the expressway at Iffco Chowk to travel towards Aya Nagar from MG Road,” Yadav said. He said Delhi traffic police had informed Gurugram counterparts that dewatering pumps had been installed near Shiv Murti. “The main drain there was not functional due to which the water logging took place as per Delhi traffic police officials,” he said. Brigadier Sukhbir Singh, vice-president of the Palam Vihar RWA, said most roads in the area were already in poor condition. There is no proper drainage in the area,” he said. Officials from the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) said high-capacity pumps and suction tankers had been deployed at vulnerable junctions to clear accumulated water. He said the situation was better than in previous years. GMDA spokesperson Neha Sharma said teams had monitored key locations and taken flood-relief measures to facilitate the discharge of storm water. with inputs from Debashish Karmakar and Sampurna Panigrahi
On Saturday, as the trough moves further north, Delhi may see even heavier rain,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of Skymet Weather.
The flooding in and around Lutyens’ Delhi was particularly jarring given that the area is preparing to host the BRICS Summit on September 12 and 13, when heads of state and senior delegations from several countries will converge on there.
