Mahamaya, DND approaches flooded

Noida: Traffic crawled following the Wednesday morning downpour which triggered massive traffic jams in different parts of the city. Hundreds of commuters and office goers were stranded in the snarl-ups.
The worst-hit areas were Mahamaya Flyover, Sector 37, NH-24, etc where traffic crawled for hours in the incessant rain. The entry point of a loop connecting the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway to DND Flyway was submerged, leaving commuters struggling to navigate.Various underpasses like the one in Sector 18, Amity University cut under the Mahamaya Flyover, and basements of several showrooms also submerged due to heavy rain.
Since the low-lying areas and roads were submerged, commuters had to stop and consider alternative routes. Several vehicles broke down, causing tailbacks and jams on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway and other places. A car that broke down triggered a tailback on the stretch from Sector 15 to the Noida entry gate for some time. Traffic police officers later towed away the vehicle.
An uprooted tree fell on a parked car in Sector 19 and no traffic policemen were deployed at the spot which led to a snarl. “I left from Delhi to my office in Noida Special Economic Zone at 9am. I got stuck in the traffic on Mahamaya Flyover for an hour. I reached office late,” said Vishal Kumar, a software engineer.
Anwar Abbasi, spokesperson for NTBCL, operator of DND Flyway, said the entry point of the loop connecting the expressway to DND Flyway near Dalit Prerna Sthal went under water. “The low land submerged in the morning. We had engaged two pumps to extract the water. However, there was no traffic jam on the main stretch of DND Flyway,” he said.
Waterlogging at the loop entry point is a regular occurrence each time it rains heavily because of a structural problem. Commuters going towards DND Flyway from the expressway took the Film City flyover to Sector 18 and then went to Rajnigandha Chowk in Sector 16. The traffic diversion blocked the entire stretch for around two hours.
Traffic also crawled from Sector 37 towards the Golf Course Metro station in Sector 44. “The officials should have given an advisory to commuters to avoid certain roads in the event of heavy rain. I had no information about the traffic jam on the Noida expressway,” said Sarfaraz Ahmad, an MNC employee.
Traffic policemen, who had a tough time handling the jams and diversions, claimed that they did their best. Traffic inspector Dharmendra Yadav said there waterlogging at some places due to heavy rainfall. “Traffic police officers used cranes to tow away vehicle sthat broke down and extracted the accumulated water from the low-lying roads till the routes were cleared,” Yadav said.