That sinking feeling: Rain drowns Chandigarh, traffic disrupted

As per details, the city received 113.3 mm of rainfall between 8.30 am and 9.30 pm on Saturday, which is the highest single day rainfall since 2017, when the city received 120.8 mm of rainfall on July 28. Officials said that the persistent rainfall on Saturday caused Sukhna Lake to swell, with the water level reaching the 1161.7 feet, which is nearly one-and-a-half feet below the danger mark of 1163 ft. If the water reaches the danger level, floodgates of the lake will be opened. As per details, officials from Chandigarh’s Engineering Wing have been stationed near the lake for monitoring the situation.

Weather department officials said that the heavy rainfall is expected to continue for the next 48 hours. Officials said that at least eight motor vehicles — including some cars and SUVs — were damaged on Saturday after some trees uprooted and fell on them in the parking lot of Chandigarh Police Headquarters in Sector 9, and in a residential locality in Sector 19. A tree was also uprooted on the dividing road of Sector 8/18 on Madhya Marg. No human injuries or casualties were reported in any of the incidents, an UT official monitoring the situation said.

“The complaints of waterlogging have been pouring in from all parts of the city. We are constantly trying to attend to the problems and get them sorted. We have created a group on social media with members of the police and civic body to identify all points of water logging and react immediately,” said

Anindita Mitra, commissioner of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.
She added that the N-Choe (a seasonal rivulet) was completely submerged. “If the head of N-Choe is submerged, then water cannot flow out of storm water drains into the choe,” Mitra said.

Meanwhile, there were reports of rainwater entering some houses in Hallo Majra, Ramdarbar, and Dhanas villages. Deep Chand, a resident of Hallomajra, said, “The administration has failed to address the rainwater-related problems in our area. Chandigarh villages were brought under the control of the municipal corporation, which has failed to address our grievances.”

The persistent rain also triggered traffic jams in the city, with vehicles wading through slowly on completely inundated roads of the city. A number of underpasses, including the ones on Sector 11/15 dividing road, Phase-1 Industrial Area, Phase-2 Industrial Area, were submerged preventing any kind of vehicle or commuter movement through them.

The Sector 20/34 roundabout — known as Gurdwara Chowk on Dakshin Marg — Piccadilly roundabout, Sector 29 ITI light point, Sector 8 slip road on Madhya Marg, and Sector 35/36 roundabout also witnessed some amount of waterlogging.

At many places, traffic police volunteers, along with locals, struggled to open the jammed water gullies in order to create an outlet for the stagnant water to flow out. At least 40 locations were identified as prone to water logging in the city. Contacted, DSP (traffic) Jaswinder Singh, said, “Instructions were issued to the traffic police personnel to clear the water logged gullies at the earliest. At many places, we took the assistance of local people to clean the gullies.”