8 dead in Gurugram as two-hour downpour exposes city's fragile civic planning

A mere two-hour downpour on Wednesday night unleashed a cascade of tragedies across Gurugram, leading to the deaths of at least eight people and once again exposing the glaring deficiencies in the city's civic planning and infrastructure. Victims succumbed to electrocution, drowning, and road accidents as heavy rains transformed roads into rivers, inundated homes, and choked drainage systems. The fatalities include a software engineer, a food delivery executive, and an auto-rickshaw driver, all killed in separate incidents involving submerged live wires or open manholes, while three teenagers drowned in a disused mining pit turned into a rainwater pool.

The "Millennium City," despite its rapid growth and wealth, was brought to a standstill by the predictable monsoon rains. Roads remained submerged through Thursday morning, and public anger surged as residents grappled with flooded living rooms, submerged basements, and overflowing sewage. The collapse of a slip-road on the Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) for the third time in a year, which partially swallowed a truck, further highlighted the structural fragilities. Officials, while acknowledging the severe disruption, have issued an advisory urging corporate offices and private institutions to allow employees to work from home.

Authorities have registered cases of negligence, with police asking the power distribution company and Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) officials to take responsibility for the electrocution and drowning incidents. Gurugram police stated that personnel were deployed at over 100 locations to manage traffic and assist with broken-down vehicles. Deputy Commissioner Ajay Kumar visited various flooded areas, promising an audit of live-wire hazards and open drains within 48 hours. However, residents and opposition leaders are lambasting the administration, with former Congress MP Raj Babbar terming the deaths "institutional murder" and criticizing the city's inability to manage basic drainage despite high taxes, arguing that Gurugram "sells million-dollar dream homes but can't build a working drain."