Pre-monsoon work: A race against time for Huda, MCG

Gurgaon: Civic officials are in a race against time to get the city's sewage and drainage lines cleaned in time for monsoons. The civic body has a few days in hand, with monsoons expected to reach Delhi-NCR in next few days.
Along with cleaning master sewerage and drainage lines, Huda and MCG are also cleaning internal sector and colony lines to ensure smooth evacuation of rainwater."We're trying to de-clog all drains to ensure smooth flow and avoid waterlogging," said a senior official, adding last year's problems were mainly due to blockages in drainage lines.
He said only a few days back the city witnessed waterlogging after half-an-hour of rain. "It helped us identify places which need immediate attention. We're also focussing on places like Hero Honda Chowk, which was inundated last year," he said, adding most of the de-silting work is complete, with remaining work at an advanced stage. He further said Huda is confident of finishing the work before onset of monsoon.
To reduce waterlogging at Hero Honda Chowk, Huda is laying a temporary plastic pipe to drain excess rainwater. "The 36.96km Badshapur drain has a capacity of 1,750 cusec, but carrying capacity falls to 500 cusec in village Khandsa, where it has a bottleneck. During monsoons, over 1,500 cusec flows into it at full pressure, causing waterlogging at Hero Honda Chowk, NH-8 service road, Sector 33-34, etc," said a senior Huda official.
A proposal to build an extra drain under the NH-8 service road to augment Badshapur canal didn't materialise on time. "Now we're trying to lay a temporary pipe between Hero Honda Chowk and Kherki Daula, to increase carrying capacity and ensure evacuation of excess water," he said, adding this won't make the area totally free of waterlogging. "For that, we'll have pumps to extract rainwater within hours of a shower," he said.
On Sunday, MCG and Huda cleaned sewers at Sushant Lok, DLF 1, Madanpuri road, while work is on at Subhash Chowk. "Along with new Gurgaon, we are also working to ensure there's no waterlogging in old Gurgaon," he said.