A freshly concreted stretch of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway turned into a water trap after the first heavy spell of rain on Monday, raising serious questions about the quality of construction work. The downpour led to severe waterlogging on one side of the highway, disrupting traffic and putting commuters at risk. Visuals from the spot showed vehicles crawling through several inches of accumulated water.

Concerned officials rushed to the site with heavy machinery and tools to clear the stagnant water and restore vehicular movement. Frequent road users said poor drainage planning on the newly laid surface may have contributed to the flooding. AK Sharma, an official at Nirmal Build Infra Private Limited, claimed, “The six-lane stretch is no longer waterlogged.”

mid-day posted an online video and photos from Vasai’s Tungareshwar phata, where the Gujarat-bound stretch was waterlogged, forcing the road users to negotiate the stretch by slowing down their vehicles. A few workers from the local municipal corporation were seen manually creating channels to help the water recede from the highway lane. Additionally, a machine was deployed to expedite the clearance process on the high-speed stretch that connects Maharashtra and Gujarat.