‘Flawed planning, vanishing ecosystems’: Key flood causes in Gurugram

Urban experts attributed the crisis to the erasure of Gurugram’s natural sponges, such as johads, seasonal streams and Aravalli runoff channels

Every monsoon, Gurugram, the so-called Millennium City, comes to a grinding halt. On Monday, heavy rainfall once again left the city paralysed, with commuters stranded for up to ten hours, underpasses submerged, and residents wading through waist-deep water. While officials blamed “unprecedented rainfall”, experts and residents said the crisis is rooted in flawed planning, vanishing ecosystems and misplaced priorities. 

Vehicles wade through a waterlogged stretch during heavy rain at Iffco chowk in Gurugram on Monday. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

Residents questioned the government’s repeated claims of “abnormal rain”. “Every year we are told it’s because of unusual rain. But what’s unusual about rain in monsoon? The unusual thing is that a city like Gurgaon still has no working drainage system,” said Sushil Mehta, a Sector 46 resident who spent five hours stuck in traffic on Monday night. 

Urban experts attributed the crisis to the erasure of Gurugram’s natural sponges, such as johads, seasonal streams and Aravalli runoff channels, which have been replaced by glass towers, asphalt and poorly maintained drains. “It’s like pouring a bucket of water onto a plastic sheet instead of grass. The problem is the surface, not the water,” said an urban planner with the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA). 

The city’s reliance on car-centric infrastructure, particularly flyovers and underpasses, has worsened flooding. “Underpasses are designed as bowls without proper drainage. They fill up first and then trigger city-wide jams. More roads don’t mean less congestion; they mean more cars,” said Sarika Panda Bhatt, Director at Nagarro and Trustee, Raahgiri Foundation. 

To be sure, according to data from India Meteorological Department (IMD), Gurugram recorded 577.3mm of seasonal rainfall from June 1 to September 2, which is 39% higher than the normal.

Bhatt added, “It’s shocking that in a city as new as Gurgaon, it can take two hours to travel two kilometres during a downpour. This isn’t an old legacy city; it’s a textbook failure of modern planning. Solutions are not new. We need at least 1,000 public buses, safe footpaths and a metro system expanded to Dwarka, Manesar, Sohna and Faridabad. The Comprehensive Mobility Plan has been on paper for a decade. What’s missing is execution.” 

Multiple agencies, including GMDA, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), operate with overlapping jurisdictions, resulting in a diffusion of accountability. Developers have encroached on wetlands and drains, while citizens have worsened the problem by dumping waste.

DCP (Traffic) Rajesh Kumar Mohan said the police are left firefighting civic failures. “On Monday, we deployed over 5,000 personnel across key junctions to keep traffic moving. But no amount of manpower can solve a structural drainage failure. Unless long-term solutions are implemented, the chaos will repeat.” 

Experts called for urgent systemic change. “The maniacal pace of construction of wider roads, flyovers and underpasses to accommodate vehicles has worsened urban flooding,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director of Research and Advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). “This requires a serious rethink. We need water-sensitive urban design, green spaces, permeable surfaces, rainwater harvesting, and drainage that doubles as public space. Public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure reduce road paving and allow better percolation. Gurgaon must shift away from its obsession with cars if it wants to be climate resilient.” 

For residents, the fallout is personal. “I spent the night in my car on Golf Course Road because traffic wasn’t moving and water was waist-deep. This isn’t freak weather; it’s civic failure,” said Dinesh Malik, a software professional from Faridabad. 

The recurring gridlock, experts argue, is not a natural disaster but the outcome of denial of ecological limits, of sustainable planning, and of citizens’ right to a functioning city.