'Boat rides' in Gurgaon? Heavy rains drown roads, commuters pay Rs 600 for 6km

GURGAON: For corporate executive Shivam, Monday night’s rain mayhem turned a 6km commute from Huda City Centre metro to his home into a Rs 600 “boat ride” in an e-rickshaw.

“It felt like a premium charge for a boat ride,” he said, clutching his soaked laptop bag.


Across Gurgaon, commuters waded waist-deep through waterlogged streets, bikes stalled mid-road, and cab fares shot through the roof.

For many, the deluge was a déjà vu of the city’s yearly collapse.Videos showed officegoers lifting laptop bags above their heads near Cyber City and Golf Course Road as water rose waist-high.

In Sector 5, Diviya Ananya’s husband had to abandon his bike near Sheetla Mata Mandir after its engine died; by the time they returned, it was submerged.Shivangi Jha of Sector 10A offered Rs 800 for an 8km ride but was told “auto doob jayega”; she eventually called family to pick her up after a 5-hour ordeal.

An IT employee from Sector 83 waited three hours before his office cab could pick him up at 10.30pm.Some young professionals, after two hours of waiting, chartered a mini-truck home. “Best suspension ever, better than Ola,” one joked.

Amid the horror stories, kindness surfaced. Journalist Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj recalled her Rapido driver Suraj Maurya staying calm through a seven-hour jam. “He just smiled and said, ‘Ma’am, pay whatever extra you want’. People like him restore your faith in humanity,” she said.

By Tuesday morning, Gurgaon wore an eerie silence—empty roads, work-from-home advisories, and schools moving online.

A resident of Sector 54 summed it up: “Nobody wanted a repeat of Monday’s nightmare. The city looked like a ghost town.”

The monsoon exposed yet again the city’s contrasts—Rs 600 “boat rides” on submerged roads, jugaad rides in mini-trucks.