MG Road Craters Persist as GMDA Starts Upgrades

GURUGRAM: The MG Road stretch between Sukhrali flyover and Mahavir Chowk has spent nearly two months dotted with deep potholes, damaged patches and roadside sludge that shrinks the usable carriageway. Peak-hour traffic crawls as cars, two-wheelers and pedestrians share the narrowed path, especially near Government College for Girls in Sector 14, Patel Nagar and the DHBVN office.

MG Road links Mahavir Chowk, Signature Towers and IFFCO Chowk on the Delhi-Gurugram corridor. It also skirts dense Sector 14 housing and the Industrial Development Colony, so the same craters hit residents, office traffic and commercial vehicles every day. Standing water and sewage sludge along the edge push riders toward the centre, where opposing flows meet with little room to spare.

GMDA says pothole filling has begun as an interim step. A senior official said lasting relief needs a proper drainage network because the stretch waterlogs repeatedly. The authority allotted upgradation work last month as part of a wider Old Gurugram package: reconstruction of the Basai Chowk to Old Railway Road near Sadar Bazaar link and the Old Railway Road to IFFCO Chowk stretch. Together the two jobs cover about 9.5km at a combined cost of Rs 52.5 crore.

Shopkeepers along the IDC edge also lose kerbside space when sludge climbs onto the asphalt. Delivery vans double-park to avoid axle hits, and that parking itself becomes another choke. Interim filling without edge drainage only relocates the puddle a few metres down the same lane.

The civic sequence is now public. Fill the holes, keep traffic alive, then rebuild with drains and footpaths under the Rs 52.5 crore Old Gurugram road package. Residents will judge the project by whether the Mahavir Chowk approach still ponds after the first post-monsoon storm, not by the press note that announced the allotment.

Until the stormwater drains under the Rs 25.4 crore IFFCO Chowk-linked stretch are cast and connected, every heavy shower will test the same edge of MG Road. Interim patches buy time. They do not change the slope that sends water into the craters near the college and the DHBVN office.

Interim fill versus full rebuild

Under the Old Railway Road to IFFCO Chowk component, budgeted at about Rs 25.4 crore, GMDA plans to rebuild the carriageway and add stormwater drains and footpaths on both sides. Until that work advances, teams are patching craters so buses and cars can keep moving. Commuters say the quick fill helps for a few days, then loose material turns to dust when traffic passes, cutting visibility for riders behind.

Sector 14 RWA president Vikas Verma has pointed to the mix of potholes, side water and sludge eating into road width. Pedestrians and scooters end up in the same slim lane as cars. For a corridor that feeds IFFCO Chowk, that geometry guarantees snarl after snarl once rain returns.