[phamilyman]

I mean

Anyone who commutes within delhi and especially the millenium gaon - Gurgaon can attest to the madness.

We can send a probe to the moon (we'll soon figure out a way to bring the next one back!) but we can't make drains!

You know, i'd much rather that the government engineers and contractors all collude and eat money one time only. I'm willing to pay a separate drain cess like the education cess.

We spend crores every season building roads with non-existent drains and which ends up screwing our cars as well. Why can't the government:
a. Charge me a drain cess but make decent drains
b. Give the contractors lovely margins up front (hey i'll pay the contractor my share of the tax that ends up in bribes and kickbacks in cash directly if so required)

But is it too much to ask the city not to flood everytime it rains more than 5 mm in an hour?



Yours truly,
The ordinary citizen
PS: Before anyone jumps - I am a salaried individual who pay my due share of taxes and its a sizeable amount.

[condor]

phamilyman : I'm willing to pay a separate drain cess like the education cess.

That'll be hard earned money going down the drain !

I mean

[phamilyman]

Its already going down the drain. Everytime I hear of a civic agency planning to spend XYZ crores to redo the city roads, i get that sinkin' feeling!

[Fountainheader]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Its already going down the drain. Everytime I hear of a civic agency planning to spend XYZ crores to redo the city roads, i get that sinkin' feeling!

It isnt really a NCR specific issue.

The area I stay in Chennai never had drains in the 1st place. So they are redoing the whole area but by that it means - they are digging up the roads and waiting for the rains to fill in I assume!

[Sli_ce]

Hey Phamilyman, very rightly put, a lot of us wonder the same things and agree with you.
you may remember the recent doomed night(3rd it was?) when at around 8-9pm it started raining delerious in Gurgaon..
Well, Lamentable, as i was, i happened to be in DLF Phase 3 at the time and made my way through stretches ,which,to be honest looked like The Beas flowing furiously..

with the wheels of the car submerged completly and water coming up half way of the door of my poor swift, i had the complete 4*4 offroad experience in a swift! thanks to the govt!

Now my car has started making some rather awful, rattling noises,which i need to sort out.

Delhi's no different, Moolchand underpass, ITO, Kalkaji, Malviya Nagar, Vasant Kunj, GK, Patel Nagar..etc are only some of the places in the Delhi rain where you find yourself wishing that Car had Boat-like capabilities!

"You know, i'd much rather that the government engineers and contractors all collude and eat money one time only. I'm willing to pay a separate drain cess like the education cess."

Ha ha, i don't mind that too provided i get something in return for Once!

[gd1418]

Hitanshu, what are you & I going to do with the kind of rains today and BBC Weather predicting more heavy rains in the next 48 hrs..

Originally Posted by phamilyman

But is it too much to ask the city not to flood everytime it rains more than 5 mm in an hour?

Yours truly,
The ordinary citizen
PS: Before anyone jumps - I am a salaried individual who pay my due share of taxes and its a sizeable amount.

[aaggoswami]

Why NCR ? All over India its same story. We are hearing that a ring road will be constructed behind our house. This was 6 years before we shifted to this place. We are surviving in this house since last 9 years. The road is yet to come.

One road called HT Road is one way since last two years or so. A flyover is being constructed since long. Our locality has roads that can bend chassis of even tanks ( here I mean those army tanks ). Only one stretch around 100 mt is well, you know why ? There is one Deputy Commisionner or somebody like that. He has to get to some good roads, so 100m road is good so that he can take a turn, take are longer route and reach his office. He can afford this because he has time and money. Salaried class does not have that. Since last 4 years road quality is getting bad. If a society is being constructed, the contractor will dig the road for his benefit and road remains bad for ever.

This is a small part of story. We are helpless and we have to tolerate this. If you cannot fight, endure.

[vasudeva]

I have stayed in Delhi for most of my short life of 42 years, and I have been seeing this rainfall-related mess for almost a decade now. In fact, even 5 mins of rain is sufficient to cause huge traffic jams, simply because (a) huge volume of flow of traffic (B) drains overflow after getting say 5 litres of water (c) result, people slow down or crawl creating a back flow through the entire road network.

In fact it has got so bad that one wishes for rains to come on the weekend or at night. In Gurgaon, rains means at least an additional 1-2 hours based on what time I used to leave. This was till Feb 09 when my office shifted to NOIDA.

Thank God, I am out of it, and in fact rains are a blessing. Why: My office has shifted to NOIDA, and my home is in East Delhi, so rains do not have an effect on me, except for forcing a slight slowdown (23 mins becomes 28 mins!!). In fact, rains are a blessing for me, since all the traffic is stuck in Delhi!!!.

If you are referring to today's rainfall, I left home at 830 AM and reached at 850 PM. Quicker because heavy rains cause a dramatic reduction in 2w and cycle traffic. Most people from Delhi reached in 2-3 hrs. It is after the heavy rains stop that there is a sudden traffic surge. Keep this in mind.

[Eddy]

Dreading the drive back to Delhi from gurgaon in the evening today. The Dwarka underpass is submerged again !

[phamilyman]

@everyone: Thanks a ton - I'm just surprised that not one part of our NCR has decent drains.

@Vasudeva: Yeah.

My morning drive was the regular 25 min only The only problem was the massive in-gurgaon puddles. I was redlining the car as I could see the exhaust of the swift ahead of me like a few mm out of water - was hoping no scorpio guy overtakes me!!

Once on the expressway, it was bliss!!

@gdji: Nope. There are exceptional days like today, and there are moderate days. Gurgaon drains fail for >5mm rains which is not okay! btw, post tomorrow morning, rains will lessen. that's the IMD forecast that's on circulation IMO.

[extreme_torque]

We cant blame the government entirely here. What about the punjabi fatty who just had a nice chicken tikka but throws the polythene on the road, only to end up in the drains and blocking it.
Lets face it... we have no civic sense even though we are said to be a civic society.

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

@everyone: Thanks a ton - I'm just surprised that not one part of our NCR has decent drains.

There are parts which have no drains but there are also VVIP areas where there are a lot of drains.

[woof]

I travel to Gurgaon from my home in North Delhi every day. It's a 32 km drive. Normally, it takes an hour. But, whenever it rains, this can extend upto 4 hours!!!

So, to avoid it, today I just called up my boss in the morning, that I will be working from home. And, the day has been completely bliss so far!

[harry10]

Took me 3 hours to reach my office in noida from faridabad.
Thanks to superb draining system and jams at every damn corner of the road.

No drain Cess please as that will only make my pocket lighter and the govt officials pockets heavier with the same results.

[Fountainheader]

Originally Posted by harry10

Took me 3 years to reach my office in noida from faridabad.

3 years mein Alexander reached India from Greece