7 years after 'Gurujam' few lessons learnt, mess grows

It's been seven years since the infamous "Gurujam" of 2016, when commuters were stuck in a mammoth gridlock on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway for nearly two days after rainfall of 52mm in a single day flooded all arterial roads, inundated houses, and washed away the city's moniker of "Millennium City".

- Leena Dhankhar

Every monsoon since then, civic agencies aver that the situation has vastly improved and Gurugram will no longer face waterlogging of that scale again. But residents say little has improved and new waterlogging spots emerge after every bout of rain. A lasting solution to waterlogging still eludes Gurugram.

Residents said that this monsoon, areas such as Narsingpur, Hero Honda Chowk, Subhash Cho Khandsa, Tau Devil stadium, Sector 38 stretch, district courts, Golf Course Extension Road, Southern Peripheral Road (SPR), Rajiv Chowk, Iffco Chowk, Udyog Vihar, and Sohna Road, were submerged, showing that the problem has expanded to newer areas.

For example, when the city received moderate rain this July 9 (71mm) waterlogging was reported from at least 20 new spots in residential areas and intersections such as Sector 57, Sector 51, Sector 48, Shivaji Nagar, district courts, Sector 38 and many areas along Dwarka Expressway, said residents.

To understand the problem at its worst, one needs to go back seven years.

On July 28, 2016, Gurugram received 52mm of rain in a single day. While that was not much when compared to other rainy days like July 19 this year when the city received 71mm of rain it was enough to bring the city to its knees; enough to overwhelm a skeletal drainage network; enough to cause "Gurujam"; and enough to inundate low-lying areas.