Gurugram: As rain pelted down on Monday, Neha Ashish Jain’s nightmare began when her Tata Nexon reached Basai Chowk of Old Gurugram. Cars floated in the road-turned-river and parents carried children on their shoulders through rising filthy water. For seven harrowing hours, Jain sat cross-legged on her seat as water seeped into the car, while she and her husband inched through the city. They couldn’t reach home and ended up spending the night in a Sector 38 Airbnb, 6 km from her home.
“I still can’t get over the trauma. I dread the rain now. I was on my way to Sector 37D, but the downpour trapped me and my husband in a traffic jam that stretched for seven hours,” said Jain, who now checks the weather forecast every two hours.
As heavy rainfall lashed Delhi-NCR, Gurugram’s infamous waterlogging once again came under the spotlight. Its glossy high-rises, Cyber City, and golf courses were all inundated. But its less-talked-about older city—Old Gurugram—was even worse off, with its potholed roads, narrow lanes, cramped houses and a poor drainage system turning waterlogging into full-blown flooding.
The Chandni Chowk of Gurugram, Sadar Bazar, has been waterlogged for three days. Even in the posh areas such as Sector 5A and Civil Lines, heavy motors had to be deployed to pump out floodwater. Many people who work in Cyber City and DLF live in Old Gurugram because the accommodation is cheaper. What is now frustrating them is the difference in investment, upkeep, and interest between the two parts of the city. They are venting on WhatsApp groups, Instagram, and Reddit, while social activists are pointing out the “stepmotherly treatment” of Old Gurugram.
It’s a tale of two cities in one. The Delhi-Jaipur highway from the airport to IFFCO Chowk splits Gurugram into two. On one side is the ‘Millennium City’ created by builders like HUDA (now Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran) and DLF. On the other is the old city, stretching from the old railway station to Sadar Bazar and the vegetable mandis.
“Old Gurugram was basically a cluster of villages, and when it was turned into a city, there was no urban local body. How can you expect proper drainage when there was no ULB,” said Sanjay Lal, social activist and president of the Apartment Owners Association, who lives in an apartment near Ambience Mall.
Every time they blame heavy rainfall and say it won’t happen next time. But the same cycle keeps repeating itself. The administration makes 3- to 4-foot-wide nallahs but there is no way to remove that water. The same water overflows and spills on the roads
-Rahul Rao, Old Gurugram resident
Last year, Lal contested the assembly election as an independent candidate from Old Gurugram. During his campaign, he said he witnessed firsthand the plight of residents living amid a maze of cramped roads, huddled houses, and crumbling infrastructure.
Several Old Gurugram RWAs, including Om Nagar, Patel Nagar, and Shivaji Nagar even called to boycott the BJP candidate Mukesh Sharma for neglecting the area, though he won the election. Both he and Congress’s Mohit Grover promised big changes, from turning Sadar Bazar into “a model market like Chandni Chowk” to better roads and infra. A year on, none of it has panned out.
Akash Goel, a jewellery shop-owner who has lived in Sadar Bazar since 1986, said little has changed in Old Gurugram over the decades.
“The condition is worse. The government makes promises during the election season and then goes into limbo.”
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A season of ‘dread’
Just eight kilometres from the gleaming towers of Cyber City, the gallis of Sadar Bazar are drowning. Packets of chips, a stray slipper, and a dupatta float on the brown water filling one narrow lane. Cars, half-submerged, stand bumper to bumper with their headlights blinking. Shopkeepers and workers roll up their trousers and wade through streets that have merged with the drains.
A government employee who has lived in Old Gurugram for two decades blamed the mess on unplanned growth.
“The way Old Gurgaon was commercialised over the years has resulted in a swelling population and immense pressure on infrastructure. Villages were replaced by builder floors with no attention paid to the drainage. It was about personal greed and not public convenience,” the 54-year-old said.
A senior official at the Municipal Corporation told ThePrint that the government has been developing Old Gurugram and that new projects were on the way.
“The government is building a metro line in Old Gurugram so that the load on streets is decreased. The new line will connect Old Gurugram to Cyber City. We are also planning new roads, underpasses, and flyovers to alleviate traffic congestion,” said the official, suggesting that this would help reduce waterlogging.
Old Gurugram was basically a cluster of villages, and when it was turned into a city, there was no urban local body. How can you expect proper drainage when there was no ULB
-Sanjay Lal, activist
Sadar Bazar shop owner Akash Goel said infrastructure failures have long affected both business and daily life.
Just 15 days ago, he and other shopkeepers met authorities over the shortage of parking that was driving customers away. Now the same group is preparing to meet the district commissioner again — this time over the flooding.
“After our meeting, the area from Harish Bakery to Shiv Murti was dug up by the authorities. We thought they were working on the drainage, but the rain showed us we were wrong,” he added.
Complaints of grievances going unaddressed are common. Rahul Rao, a resident of Sector 15B, said he has knocked on every door from the Municipal Corporation to the District Commissioner’s office about the flooding situation. But the government, according to him, doesn’t pay attention to Old Gurugram.
“Every time they blame heavy rainfall and say it won’t happen next time. But the same cycle keeps repeating itself. The administration makes 3- to 4-foot-wide nallahs but there is no way to remove that water. The same water overflows and spills on the roads,” said Rao.
He added that there are no rainwater harvesting systems in parks to put excess water to use. On Monday, he was among the group of people who rowed a boat in Sector 46 to draw attention to the city’s plight during the monsoon.
“I live in Sector15 B where all businessmen and MLAs lived. But even that part is neglected. Rajendra Park near the old railway station, Sheetla Colony, Sadar Bazar, they all get inundated during rains. One can’t step out. It takes 15 days for the place to get back to normal,” said Rao.
For Neha Jain, shifting to Old Gurugram two years ago from Delhi’s Malviya Nagar is a decision she sorely regrets.
“More than anything, I am concerned about my two young daughters when it rains and how they will reach home from school,” she said.
This time, she added, even a drizzle would be enough to make her quickly book a cab at surge rates and pick up her kids from school. “Such is the dread. I don’t want to even think about it.”
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‘Old Gurugram beach’
Whenever it rains heavily, Arti Dewan spends the day with mops and buckets. Two days ago, the water seeped into the ground floor of her house in Sector 22-A of Old Gurugram.
“It was stinking,” she recalled.
Her women’s WhatsApp group has been brimming with photos of the chaos in Old Gurugram— waterlogged roads, floodwater entering houses — and angry laments about an absent administration.
“There is no drainage system in Old Gurugram. This is what we get after paying taxes,” read one angry message. Another woman has shared a video of her society with water as far as one can see.
Everyone has a story to share. Even members from the new city occasionally chime in to say they aren’t much better off.
“I smtyms wonder was it a wiser decision to leave our home town nd shift to this luxurious home worth 5 cr [sic],” wrote a member called Sakshi from the upscale Sector 57. Her husband was sick during the downpour and she wrote she was terrified of needing to take him to the hospital while the roads were at a standstill.
An Instagram page on Old Gurugram shows a video of water gushing around a woman’s feet, making it look like she is at a beach — until the camera lifts to reveal the bus stand. The caption reads: “Gurgaon Bus Stand beach is the best.”
A comment reads: “We are proud that our CM has provided Gurgaon with a beach and a pool.”
And Dewan has coined her own description of her neighbourhood. Old Gurugram doesn’t have potholes in roads — “it has roads in potholes”.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)