Monsoon rains bring Gurugram to a halt as school bus partially sinks into caved-in road | Watch

A school bus carrying children sank into a section of a road that caved in, while arterial roads outside Medanta Hospital, Baani Square and Hero Honda Chowk were submerged, as heavy monsoon showers brought Gurugram to a standstill on Tuesday, according to The Indian Express. Waterlogging also hit residential areas such as Mayfield Gardens and Ardee City, with traffic personnel wading through flooded streets to ease congestion.

According to the report, the school bus that was dropping off children at home got stuck near Sector 53 on Tuesday afternoon. Sanitation workers and police personnel took nearly an hour to pull the vehicle out of the pit.

Cave-Ins and Waterlogging Disrupt Traffic Across the City

In a separate incident, a stretch of road at Narsinghpur on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway caved in, forcing traffic police to divert vehicles via the Dwarka Expressway and Southern Peripheral Road, worsening congestion, The Indian Express reported.

Vehicles were also stranded on Civil Lines Road due to severe waterlogging. The area is home to the Gurugram deputy commissioner, Badshahpur MLA, and Haryana minister Rao Narbir Singh.

Official data cited by the newspaper showed the district received up to 82 mm of rainfall between 2 PM and 5 PM. Besides the usual flooding hotspot at Sheetla Mata Road, the newly constructed master road in Sector 102 was also inundated.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said in a post on X that the cave-in on NH-48 occurred at a location where the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) was carrying out pipe culvert work. As a precaution, two lanes of the highway were closed while GMDA teams began restoration work. The situation was being closely monitored, the authority said.

A GMDA spokesperson said drainage measures had produced encouraging results, with rainwater receding quickly on several major roads. However, the agency acknowledged temporary water accumulation at Sheetla Mata Road and the Mayfield Gardens-Sispal Vihar stretch, where engineering teams had been deployed.

Residents vent frustration

Residents, however, criticised the city's recurring monsoon chaos.

Chaitali Mandhotra, a resident of Ardee City, sarcastically thanked the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) for “cleaning the funds and not the drains”.

Ruchika Sethi, a resident of Nirvana Country, said that despite Gurugram being one of India's biggest revenue generators, the city continues to be treated primarily as an investment destination, with inadequate infrastructure spending. She added that residents deserved better than having to fear flooded roads every monsoon.

Civic agencies maintained that this year's flooding was less severe than in previous years. An MCG spokesperson said engineering teams, sanitation workers and field staff had been deployed across the city with tractor-mounted pumps, de-watering pumps and suction tankers. The spokesperson added that improved drainage connectivity had enabled quicker rainwater clearance in several areas.