Delhi-Gurugram traffic woes spark online debate as commuters battle grid lock after rains: ‘An hour has passed but no….’

Heavy rains continued to lash Delhi- NCR on Wednesday morning, causing huge traffic snarls. Many users took to social media to complain about the grid lock. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued yellow alert for the national capital, forecasting wet spells during the day.

“Generally cloudy sky. A spell of very light to light rain at many places with moderate rain at isolated places accompanied with thunderstorm/lightning/strong winds speed reaching 30-40 kmph gusting to 50 kmph towards morning/forenoon. Another spell of very light to light rain at many places with moderate rain at isolated places towards evening/night,” IMD's weather forecast states.

Waterlogging in Badarpur area caused traffic snarls after heavy rain.

Compounding the trouble of traffic jams during heavy rains, a major section of National Highway-48 caved in on Tuesday at the Narsinghpur area in Haryana's Gurugram following heavy rainfall. Disruption to traffic movement continued on 8 July as nearly 1-kilometre-long traffic jam was seen on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway.

Due to ongoing repair work on one carriageway of the highway near Behrampur, the traffic situation worsened. Earlier, Gurugram Police appealed to corporate employees to work from home to help ease traffic congestion. Even Delhi Traffic Police issued advisory urging motorists to use alternate route via UER Dwarka Expressway.

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

The district received up to 34.5 mm of rainfall on 7 July, IMD said. In addition to the usual flooding hotspot at Sheetla Mata Road, the newly constructed master road in Sector 102 and Mayfield Gardens-Sispal Vihar stretch were also inundated. According to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), 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, the agency closed two lanes of the highway while GMDA teams continued restoration work.

Social media reaction

Many social media users complained about being stuck in traffic for over an hour. Key routes where traffic jam was severe included, Delhi-Jaipur Highway, Anand Vihar, Railway Station and Metro Station and Mehrauli - Badarpur road.

A user wrote, "One heavy spell of rain, and this is the situation in Delhi NCR. People on the Delhi–Gurugram route were stuck in traffic for hours in a 10-km-long jam after a section of NH-48 collapsed. Minister of Road Transport and Highways @nitin_gadkari is busy turning people’s cars and bikes into trash through ethanol while highways continue to collapse."

Another user remarked, “There is such a huge jam near the flyover between Anand Vihar Railway Station and Metro Station and no traffic policeman is clearing it.”

A third user stated, “There is heavy traffic on MB Road due to rain, so much so that, it is causing inconvenience to the arrival of school buses.”

A fourth comment read, “There is a huge traffic jam on KhanpurMB Road. An hour has passed but no one from the administration is present.”

A fifth user said, “Jam at Khanpur red light MB road from half an hour.”