Residents in many localities around Arakere Lake on Bannerghatta Road spent a sleepless night on Tuesday after lake water entered their homes.
After heavy rain lashed the city on Tuesday night, water from storm water drains (SWD) entered the lake, causing the lake to overflow and flood surrounding localities.
In the early hours of Wednesday, water entered Shanthinikethan Layout, Vysya Bank Colony and Royal Residency Layout. The BBMP swung into action and pumped out all the water by noon. The civic agency put up sandbags to stop water from entering the neighbourhood again.
“It was a nightmarish experience. At 3 am, water entered our house and the level went up to one feet. After that, our family could not sleep. Even after the water was pumped out, the stench was so bad that we could not cook at home,” said Dhananjay, a businessman and resident of Shanthiniketan layout.
Vijayan, a resident of Vysya Bank Colony said he noticed water in the compound at 5 am on Wednesday. “The BBMP authorities came at 8 am. By 11 am, water was pumped out,” he said. “Last year too, there was flooding. But the authorities are yet to take permanent measures,” he lamented.
Many houses in Bommanahalli zone including Yelanahalli, Vishwa Priya Layout in Begur, Singasandra, Anugraha Layout in Kodichikkanahalli, Hulimavu, Kalena Agrahara, Nynappanahalli, Noganagar and Devarachikkahalli were flooded too.
Councillor A N Purushottam blamed the delay in completion of construction work on the storm water drain for the flooding. “The outlet of the SWD is narrow, causing water to flow slowly. With rainfall, the pressure on the outlet increased, because of which water flowed towards the lake, increasing the pressure on the lake. This is why the lake overflowed,” he added.
Purushottam pointed out that the Arakere lake bund was breached last year.
“ Since then, we have been depending on sandbags to avoid flooding. Though the lake maintenance was given to BDA, they have not taken up any work. If they were pro-active, we could have avoided this,” he said.
A BDA source told Express that they had called tenders for overall development of the lake, which includes construction of bunds, de-weeding, desilting, sewage treatment plant and other works. “We shall award the tender in the next 15 days,” the source said.
The BBMP and the BDA authorities are now taking precautionary measures to avoid further disasters.