After heavy rain, Gurugram issues ‘work from home’ advisory for offices to avoid traffic congestion

Corporate offices and private institutions were advised to allow their employees to work from home on Thursday, a day after torrential rain led to massive traffic snarls and waterlogging in the high-rise city that was brought to its knees.

The rains that started around 7 PM on Wednesday and continued late into the night led to jams that lasted till the early hours of Thursday.

According to the advisory issued by the District Disaster Management Authority, Gurugram recorded 133 mm of rainfall in the 12-hour period that ended at 7 AM on Thursday. This included an “extremely intense spell” of 103 mm of rainfall between 7.30 PM to 9 PM on Wednesday.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an ‘orange’ alert for Gurugram, the advisory stated.

“In view of the above situation, all corporate offices and private institutions in the district are advised to guide their employees to work from home on July 10 so that traffic congestion can be avoided,” it said.

Rain brought Gurugram to a standstill on Wednesday evening, with roads and several residential areas inundated and traffic gridlocked.

The downpour left the Narsinghpur stretch of the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway and places near Basai and Golf Course Extension Road submerged.

The road in front of the parking lot near Rajiv Chowk, Sheetla Mata road, Sadar Bazaar, Bus Adda road and roads in nearby colonies were also flooded.

Waterlogging was also reported from Basai Chowk, Khandsa, Sanjay Gram Road, Sohna Road, Subhash Chowk and Sectors 30, 31, 40, 45, 47, 51, 22, 23, 4, 5, 12, 13 and 48.

There was a 7 to 8-km-long queue of vehicles on National Highway 48 from Narsinghpur to Rajokri in Delhi on Wednesday night.

About 2.5 feet of water accumulated at Subhash Chowk and people were stuck in a jam till 2 am.

Some people took to social media to highlight the condition of roads and called for action against officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG).

In a post on X, the MCG said, “Required machinery is operational to ensure discharge of storm water. Drains are running at full capacity due to high rainfall.”

Gurugram traffic police warned commuters about slow traffic on Thursday morning.

“Waterlogging has been reported at many places across Gurugram due to heavy rain since last night. Traffic jams with movement disruption may take more than usual time to commute,” it said in a post on X.

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Heavy rain also lashed other parts of Haryana, including Ambala, Hisar, Karnal, Narnaul, Rohtak, Bhiwani and Panchkula.

In neighbouring Punjab, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Faridkot, Mohali and Fatehgarh Sahib received rainfall.

Chandigarh, the common capital of the two states, also witnessed a wet spell.

The rain brought down temperatures by a few notches.