 "Gurgaon, Rains")
As thousands of commuters were left stranded on Gurgaon Delhi Expressway and NH-8 due to massive traffic jam, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner T L Satyaprakash on Friday imposed prohibitory orders near Hero Honda Chowk here for easing out the congestion.
"Considering the unprecedented rainfall and the flow of huge volume of water due to downward gradient from Delhi towards Gurgaon, prohibitory order under section 144 CRPC has been imposed near Hero Honda Chowk in the city," he said.
The Deputy Commissioner said DEO has been directed to request all schools in the city to remain close on Friday and Saturday due to potholes and open manholes.
"Civil agencies may requisition all infrastructure equipment at benchmark rates so as to reposition roads, traffic congestions and other necessary actions. For next three days, the flash flood management works shall be undertaken on quotations basis and all the contractors shall coorperate with the civic agencies," he said.
Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, has called an emergency meeting in Chandigarh to tackle the ongoing traffic jam and waterlogging problem.
The Deputy Commissioner directed that wherever the flow of water was obstructed due to encroachment, the concerned engineer or staff may undertake removal of such encroachment on urgent basis with summary information to the concerned owner.
"The traffic management will continue till the end of September. CEO, Sheetla Mata Mandir Board shall make payments for all additional home guards even if it is beyond the competency of Chief Administrator considering the task at hand," Suryaprakash said.
"Wherever the co-operation is not received the police may register cases against such delinquent officials till the end of the monsoon on request by civic agencies," he said.
Thousands of office goers and other commuters were stranded in Gurgaon as heavy rains led to waterlogging on NH-8 causing huge traffic jams, forcing authorities to shut down schools in Delhi's satellite city while some offices too declared it an off.
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has ordered National Highways Chief Raghav Chandra to send a team of officials to clear the traffic and submit a report to him.
Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Secretary D S Dhesi has said the traffic situation in Gurgaon is expected to improve by evening.
He said this at a media interaction in Chandigarh after reviewing the situation at a meeting of the Crisis Coordination Committee here on Friday.
Dhesi said the state government got to know that the traffic situation was getting complicated due to heavy rain around 7 pm last evening and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar immediately directed officials for prompt action.
He said Khattar personally wanted to monitor the situation but his helicopter could not take off due to bad weather.
Dhesi, who has also spoken to the Secretary, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Chairman, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), said that while the state government has rushed two senior IAS officers to Gurgaon to coordinate and speed up operations to clear the traffic jam, NHAI and Ministry of Road Transport too have deputed teams of senior officers to ease the situation.
Additional Chief Secretary, Disaster Management, Haryana Keshni Anand Arora has spoken to the Chief Secretary of Delhi regarding the situation and would go to Gurgaon on Saturday, he added.
Dhesi said as rainwater in Gurgaon is discharged in the Najafgarh drain, a Chief Engineer of Irrigation Department would also be deployed at Dhansabad in Delhi to ensure better coordination with his counterparts in the Delhi government.
He said the state government has decided to immediately deploy a company each of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and India Reserve Battalion (IRB) to ensure smooth flow of traffic, especially on National Highway 8 where traffic was disrupted due to heavy rain between 2 pm and 5 pm on Thursday.
Also, Home Guard personnel will be deployed to regulate traffic in the town, he said, attributing last evening's situation to the "unexpected" 4.6 cm rainfall in three hours.
To put things in perspective, a total of 19 cm rain was recorded between June 1 and July 27 in Gurgaon.
Dhesi claimed the traffic situation had normalised between Ambience Mall and Rajiv Chowk but vehicular movement was slow from Rajiv Chowk to Hero Honda Chowk, adding that normalcy would be restored by the evening.
He claimed the situation had aggravated because of an under-construction flyover at Hero Honda Chowk.
