Gurgaon: Heavy rain lashed the city for a second consecutive day on Saturday, waterlogging roads in sectors 3, 5, 10, 14 and 31, along Sohna Road, Sheetla Mata Mandir Road and Old Delhi-Gurgaon Road, and pushing daytime temperatures down by seven degrees.Manesar recorded the day’s highest rainfall at 64mm between 8am and 3pm, followed by Sohna at 52mm, Kadipur and Harsaru at 39mm each, Gurgaon tehsil at 28mm, Wazirabad and Pataudi at 25mm each, Badshapur at 24mm and Farrukhnagar at 13mm. The district had already recorded substantial rain in the preceding 24 hours: Manesar logged 54mm between Friday and Saturday 8am, followed by Wazirabad at 42mm, Gurgaon tehsil at 41mm, Kadipur and Harsaru at 29mm each, and Sohna at 26mm.With more intense rain forecast, District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) issued an advisory asking residents to avoid non-essential travel and stay clear of waterlogged roads, underpasses and low-lying areas. The advisory followed an IMD nowcast issued at 10.38am, warning of rainfall exceeding 15mm an hour, accompanied by thunderstorms and gusty winds. The administration also asked commuters not to attempt crossing flooded stretches and to stay away from trees, electric poles and overhead wires during the storm.“All concerned departments and emergency response agencies to remain vigilant and take precautionary measures,” the order said. DDMA circulated the warning to GMDA, police, MCG, traffic police and education authorities for wider dissemination. Some residents said the advisory shifts responsibility onto them. “Instead of working to fix the problem facing Gurgaon every monsoon, the authorities are refusing to take the responsibility and issue advisory asking people to stay indoors,” said Sushant Sharma, a resident of Sector 47.IMD has forecast light to moderate rain with thunderstorms and lightning at a few places in Haryana on Sunday, tapering to isolated rainfall thereafter, with isolated heavy showers still possible. Thunderstorms and lightning are also forecast over the city, Palwal, Faridabad, Nuh and neighbouring districts on Sunday.The sustained downpour strained the city’s drainage network, with water accumulating across residential areas and major traffic corridors. It also brought a sharp dip in temperature: Gurgaon KVK recorded a high of 27.3°C, down from 32.5°C a day earlier, while NorthCap University logged 27°C against Friday’s 34.8°C.According to IMD, the western end of the monsoon trough is near its normal position while the eastern end lies north of normal. A well-marked low-pressure area that had been over central north Madhya Pradesh and adjoining southwest Uttar Pradesh moved to northwest Madhya Pradesh and adjoining southwest Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. Two additional troughs — one running from south Haryana to south Assam in the lower tropospheric levels, and another from south Gujarat to north Bangladesh in the lower and middle tropospheric levels — are contributing to the rainfall activity over the region.Saturday’s advisory comes barely 12 days after heavy rain exposed the city’s vulnerability to intense downpours. On Aug 24, around 70mm of rain fell by 1.30pm, triggering widespread waterlogging at Subhash Chowk, Narsingpur, Hero Honda Chowk, Rajiv Chowk, IFFCO Chowk and several parts of old Gurgaon. Traffic crawled on key routes, school buses and ambulances were caught in the flooding, and a stretch of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway near Cyber Hub was submerged. At Subhash Chowk alone, at least 12 school buses were stuck for more than two hours, leaving children stranded as parents struggled to reach them. The disruption prompted the administration to advise corporate offices and educational institutions to shift to work-from-home and online classes the following day, to ease traffic and allow civic agencies to clear roads and drains.
