Monsoon mayhem: Various incidents of road cave-in reported from Gurugram
Gurugram: The rainfall in 2018 continued to wreak havoc on Gurugram infrastructure and it was said that things will get improved in 2019. Ironically, this year's monsoon has witnessed more waterlogging and road cave-in incidents than the previous year. If in 2018, a massive cave-in near IFFCO Chowk made the headline, this year it was seen at Basai road with a 15 feet deep hole at the busy route.
With the massive hole being a cause of serious embarrassment for public officials, various public agencies shifted the blame to other agency for the maintenance of the road.
The cave-in of the Basai road came just a day after the IFFCO Chowk underpass caved in.
Some of the prominent places where the incidents of road caving in have been reported in the past include IFFCO Chowk. IFFCO Chowk flyover, Hero Chowk, and Cybercity road.
These areas are not only known as the busiest routes but are also in the process of development which is cited by the government for projecting Gurugram as an Icon city.
Following the poor state of road infrastructure, various residents have taken to social media and are demanding accountability from the public officials.
Apart from the issue of poor condition of the roads, there are complaints of poor upkeep of roads by the public agencies. Most of the resident bodies, however, claim that there is a lack of proactive action among the public agencies towards the improvement of the roads in the city.
In the past, residents have pooled money themselves to build and maintain roads for better connectivity.
"There is not a single road in the city at present that are free from potholes. While there are a lot of construction activities happening at the prominent stretch of Golf Course Road and NH-8, the condition of rest of the road continues to be in the poor state," added Rashmi Singh, a city resident.
The crumbling infrastructure and the poor state of roads were raised prominently after the heavy rains on July 29 in 2016 that crippled the city.
Following the debacle, the public agencies along with the cooperation with central agencies tried to put a lot of investment in revamping the major routes like NH-8, Sohna Road, MG Road, Golf Course Road and Golf Course Extension Road. Crores were spent on revamping the major city roads but the complaint of not tackling the problem of internal roads remained till now.
The state government has launched a Har Path app for people to upload the pictures of bad roads in the city.
The presence of multiple agencies for road maintenance, however, prevents fixing of accountability.
