reasons for Gurgaon jam, one of the worst jams

when are we going to learn @ practice.

Once 370 acres, Ghata lake is now 2 acres

TNN | Jul 31, 2016, 01.09 AM IST                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Gurgaon: Just two hours of rainfall causing mammoth traffic jam and waterlogging across Gurgaon was not a surprise, it was actually anticipated for quite some time as rapid urbanisation in the past decade has destroyed several waterbodies, lakes and natural drains in the city, which once used to store rainwater and recharge groundwater.


The most prominent victim of this blind urbanisation is the Ghata lake and dam. Once spread across 370 acres, the lake has been now reduced to just around two acres — due to which rainwater that used to get collected in the catchment area of this dam now flows over to areas like Golf Course Road, causing waterlogging.

Till two decades back, it used to be one of the biggest waterbodies in Gurgaon, but it has now become a concrete jungle. Not to mention that Huda has marked the catchment area and the lake bed as Sector 58 in its Master Plan-2021 and today several residential apartments have mushroomed in the locality.

However, Ghata lake is just one microcosm of what happened in Gurgaon. As per a recent report, Gurgaon had 388 water bodies, out of which only a handful like Basai lake, Sultanpur lake and Dumdama lake are left. Moreover, most of the interlinking natural water channels in the city have either been encroached upon, acquired by builders, or have become dumping grounds for sewage, silt and construction waste.

Irony is that the state government is even aware of this situation and its dangerous impact on the city. The forest department, in its inspection report of May 2016, had raised an alarm — 'Nothing but a disaster waiting to happen in the event of heavy rain'. The forest department had carried out inspection of the old Ghata bundh and the drainage channels and it revealed that most of the upstream area and the lake bed have been urbanised.

"The entire lake bed has been levelled by colonisers and the natural drain coming down from Behrampur and Balola in the Aravalis has been reduced to just a few metres width. This is highly inimical to the hydrology of the area and such natural lakes should have been preserved. Similar is the case with the downstream side of the natural drain that has been filled with construction and demolition waste and reduced to a few metres width only," the report said.

The natural lake and bundh use to have enough water till a decade back, say villagers. But due to the vested interest, the state government gave licence to realtors and they have turned this beautiful area into a concrete jungle. "Now the entire city is paying for this sin. Instead of preserving this waterbody, which could have help in mitigating the dual problem of Gurgaon — depleting groundwater and waterlogging, it was destroyed," said Suresh Yadav, a resident of Ghata.

Ramesh Vashisht (70), a resident of Jharsa, said the British had constructed this dam as rainwater harvesting system to retain water and divert excess water towards Najafgarh drain. The last time the lake was completely filled with rainwater was in 2003.

Conservator of forests (south circle) MD Sinha told TOI that till the 80s and 90s when gates of the dam were opened, water use to flow non-stop for around 10-15 days like a river. "Just imagine the amount of water it used to retain in those days, now all these water flow on the road," he added.

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Thanks to the Congress that ruled Haryana for better part of the last two decades, its typical stamp of greed is now clearly visible. Maybe even Vadra owns a part of the Ghata water body.Jagdish Madan

Pointing out the root cause of all the problem, retired chief town planner of Haryana, Raj Vir Singh, said instead of conservation of natural water bodies, which could have acted as natural sponge of rainfall and help discharge excess run-off to the Yamuna, the Master Plan marked this area for urbanisation opening this for realtors.

"In the last two development plans (master plans 2021 and 2031) of Gurgaon, water channels and ponds were not preserved but thrown open for construction. After complete development of Gurgaon, around 65% area would be concretised," he added.