Monsoon woes return to haunt Gurugram residents

Gurugram: On Saturday, winds blowing at 90 kmph and a brief spell of showers took only an hour to wreck havoc in the Millennium City. They left trees uprooted, inundated revamped roads with water and left residents with power supply for hours.

Such was the abysmal state of infrastructure that till 9 pm, major roads such as Golf Course road, MG road and even parts of Old Gurugram near Sadar were in dark, as newly-installed LED street lights were not turned on.

Even on Sunday, the situation was no better, as areas of Golf Course road close to Sikanderpur area were seen to be water-logged.

The situation has again raised concerns among citizens that the impending arrival of monsoon will hit the city hard.

Numerous complaints were received from areas of HUDA City Centre, MG road, Golf Course Extension road, Udyog Vihar, Shivaji Nagar and Sohna road.

Civic agencies like Haryana Urbana Development Authority (HUDA), Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and the Public Works Department (PWD) are responsible for providing infrastructure to commuters and pedestrians.

However, "it is a pity to drive on the roads of a city that at one point of time was being compared with Singapore," said Mudit Rai, a Gurugram resident.

"Just a few metres away from Cyber City, you have Sikanderpur area with potholed roads, which remain waterlogged for more than three days even after the rains subsided," he added.

Another city resident Shikha Sachdeva, who works in a multinational company, said, "We have been aware of the poor state of city roads for long. But now, even the footpaths getting broken due to rains. As it is, there are very few walkways and those too are being built with poor materials. It is incidents like these that make you feel non-professional and corrupt approach displayed by our civic authorities," she said.

Angry with the approach of the public agencies, most of the residents are now coming together and funding privately to build roads, footpaths and improving drainage systems in their respective areas.