Faridabad floods: School bus, car trapped as Tigaon records highest rainfall at 123mm
Earlier, on September 13, 2024, an SUV was submerged under 10–11 feet of water at the same site, killing two Gurugram-based bank employees
While Gurugram’s waterlogging crisis dominated headlines, neighbouring Faridabad saw arguably worse scenes on the ground, with a school bus and a Fortuner SUV both trapped in floodwaters at the Old Faridabad railway underpass — the same spot where two bank employees drowned in September 2024.
According to the district’s official rainfall report for the 24 hours between 8am on August 7 and 8am on August 8, Tigaon block recorded the highest rainfall in Faridabad district at 123mm, narrowly ahead of Faridabad block itself at 120mm. Badkhal followed at 100mm, with Dhauj (70mm), Gaunchhi (66mm), Ballabgarh (60mm), Dayalpur (48mm) and Mohna (43mm) rounding out the district. Officials said the rainfall far exceeded projections and exposed gaps in the administration’s monsoon readiness.
At the Old underpass, water rose several feet through the day. In the afternoon, a school bus got stuck — empty at the time — forcing the driver and staff to climb onto the roof to escape. Police reached the spot and evacuated them safely. By evening, a Fortuner was trapped in the same underpass; its roughly 60-year-old driver was pulled out safely by police and local residents.
Locals said the Fortuner’s driver had been warned and physically stopped by people at the underpass mouth before he drove in regardless — echoing the pattern seen in a separate incident earlier the same day, when another motorist ignored bystanders’ warnings, entered the flooded stretch, and had to be rescued and hospitalised.
The underpass has a grim recent history. On September 13, 2024, an SUV was submerged under 10–11 feet of water at the same site, killing two Gurugram-based bank employees — manager Punyashrey Sharma and cashier Viraj Dwivedi — who suffocated after being trapped inside. Following that accident, authorities installed steel gates at the underpass entrances to block vehicles when water levels rise. On Friday, however, water had already pooled 7–8 feet deep on the Fatehpur Chandila side even before reaching the gate, leaving flooding — and risk — outside the barrier itself.
Three other railway underpasses — Maharajpur, Greenfield and Gurukul — also flooded, prompting traffic police to shut all four to vehicular movement. More than 50 roads across the city, including stretches on the National Highway near Mujesar, Ajronda, outside Ballabgarh bus stand, Neelam-BK Road, Sectors 15, 21C and 21D, and colonies including Sanjay, Jawahar and Dabua, saw waterlogging through the day. On the DND-KMP Expressway service road near Sector 37, roughly a kilometre of the road went under about 1.5 feet of water, stranding two-wheelers and autos and forcing cars to crawl through.
Homes in Dayal Bagh, Sectors 14 and 16, Vinay Nagar and Old Faridabad also flooded.
FMDA authorities said drainage work was continuing across the city but that rainfall had exceeded departmental estimates. Both the Old and Greenfield underpasses remained closed the following day; the school bus was pulled out overnight, while retrieval of the submerged Fortuner was still pending. The IMD has forecast heavy rain over the next 24 hours.
