Ghaziabad: Thursday’s rainfall was heavy but not torrential but the NCR city’s roads bore the look of a calamity, triggering widespread waterlogging and a series of breakdowns and accidents as the civic mess in the city exacerbated the impact of monsoon.While waterlogging is not uncommon, it showed up even in places not prone to it, especially in Trans-Hindon townships like Indirapuram and Vaishali, where large sections of roads are dug up for pipeline-laying work under the CM-GRID project. Rainwater trapped on these roads mixed with mud from dug-up pits to create slush streams that made driving and walking perilous for thousands of residents.At least two lives were lost — a 3-year-old girl who drowned in Vijay Nagar and a security guard who was electrocuted in Indirapuram. The India Meteorological Department recorded 195.5 mm of rainfall at Kamla Nehru Nagar and 162.5 mm at Hindon IAF base in the 24 hours till 4 pm on Thursday.
Trans-Hindon remained the worst-hit area, with roads dug up simultaneously for sewer-laying work under the CM-GRID scheme leaving the entire stretch submerged under slush and water
In Vasundhara Sector 13, a stretch of road caved in, swallowing a parked car and scooter in a crater roughly 10 feet deep and 6 feet wide. GMC assistant engineer Anup Sharma said excavation work at an adjoining under-construction building site had caused the roadside area to sink after heavy rain, also breaking a sewer pipeline. A municipal team was called to repair it. No casualties were reported.A local resident, Pushkar Singh, said the pavement’s interlocking tiles had been sinking gradually and unnoticed, hidden by a tin shade the developer had erected over the excavated plot next door. “We heard a crashing sound, and by the time we rushed out of our homes all we could see was the tail of the car,” he said, adding that a scooter was also later found inside the pit. Residents rushed to disconnect power to a nearby electric pole and tree, fearing they might topple into the crater and cause electrocution, Singh said.
Vehicles move from a waterlogged area following heavy rainfall in Ghaziabad
In the Loni Border area, the body of an unidentified man was found floating on a waterlogged street. Ajay Kumar, a resident of Somvar Bazaar, Laxmi Garden, alerted police via Dial 112 around 8.30 am after spotting the body in a drain near ACP’s office in Ankur Vihar. ACP Ankur Vihar Amardeep Maurya said the badly decomposed body showed no external injuries and could not be immediately identified, adding that it appeared to have been in the drain for at least two days before overflowing water carried it onto the street.Near DPS Indirapuram, a school bus tilted after its tyres slipped into a submerged drain on a waterlogged stretch by Jaipuria Society, alarming students on board. “I started screaming when our school bus veered suddenly,” said a teacher on the bus, adding that the driver could not see the drain because the road was flooded.
A tree lies uprooted following incessant rainfall at Nehru Nagar’s Rakesh Marg
Sanjeev Sinha, a resident of Patrakar Vihar in Nyay Khand 1, said this year’s flooding had come earlier in the monsoon than last year’s, and that CM-GRID roadwork over the past six months remained incomplete despite repeated complaints.A fallen tree blocked Kala Patthar Road, causing a traffic jam, though no injuries were reported. In Rajnagar Extension, a tree toppled onto parked vehicles, damaging at least two cars.Mayor Sunita Dayal, however, claimed that the corporation had cleaned all drains a month in advance and blamed residents for dumping cow dung, garbage and waste in them, aggravating the situation. “I am not shying away from taking the responsibility, and I will take officials and contractors to task, but lack of civic sense among residents is equally to be blamed,” she said.
