Sector 70A Drain Gap Chokes Road for Months

GURUGRAM: A nearly 200-metre unfinished stretch of a master stormwater drain near the Sector 70 and Sector 70A junction has been narrowing the carriageway, trapping stagnant water and slowing traffic for about eight months, residents living along the corridor say.

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority is building the drainage network from sectors 68 to 75 at a cost of about Rs 51 crore. Financial approval for the project came in July 2024, with a stated deadline of August this year. Progress on the Sector 70A pocket has lagged, according to people who use the road daily.

How the gap hits daily movement

Rajat Srivastava, a resident of Astaire Gardens, said the drain work has been pending for about eight months. He asked authorities to at least fill and level the stretch if full slab work cannot be finished at once, and said several complaints were either closed without a visible fix or produced no on-ground change.

Residents said a road that is already less than 12 metres wide is effectively reduced to around five metres during rush hours, forcing two-way traffic into a tight passage. Harshad Shah, another resident, said the stretch is a main access to the master road, that stagnant water has become a mosquito concern, and that school buses use the passage while a playschool sits opposite the unfinished drain.

When contacted, a GMDA official said the work was in progress and that the drains would be covered. The official added that uncovered stretches would not be left open indefinitely, but did not announce a revised completion date for the Sector 70A gap.

Delayed covering of open stormwater trenches is a recurring civic complaint across new-sector corridors where master drains are still under construction. Until the Sector 70A section is finished and the road restored to full width, the pocket will keep generating congestion complaints and hygiene worries, especially around school arrival and departure hours. Residents said they want either rapid slab completion or a temporary safe leveling plan that restores two clear lanes without trapping water.

The sectors 68 to 75 drain package was meant to close exactly these gaps before the next monsoon peak. Missing an August deadline on even a 200-metre pocket undermines the wider Rs 51 crore investment, because unfinished open channels become both a traffic chokepoint and a mosquito pool. Local RWAs said they have escalated complaints through multiple civic channels without a published revised timeline.

GMDA's public line that work is ongoing and covers are coming will need a dated completion chart for the Sector 70-70A junction if trust is to return. Until then, parents sending children on school buses through the narrowed lane and motorists negotiating the five-metre squeeze will keep the pressure on the stormwater wing. A short, signed schedule for slab casting, backfilling and road restoration would be the clearest next step.