BENGALURU: As the Chief Minister’s ambitious Indira Canteen project took off with much fanfare on Wednesday, it is now touted as the prime reason for the rain-induced deluge that Bengaluru witnessed on Tuesday. The pressure to keep the canteens ready before the deadline is said to have forced the BBMP to shift focus from storm water drain management to building the canteens.
Senior officials of BBMP ’s engineering section say an oral “ultimatum” issued by the government to concentrate on the canteen works led to the lack of rain preparedness. The Mayor, who did not explicitly blame the project, also feels this was a factor. “ F or the past two months, the entire machinery was working to identify land for the canteens, visiting Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu where prefabricated segments were being prepared for the construction ofcanteens,, shifting those structures to Bengaluru and ensuring progress of the work,” said an official in the engineering department.
On Wednesday, 101 Indira canteens were in a ugurated with the rest of the 97 to be opened on October 2.
Tuesday’s deluge exposed the BBMP’s lack of pre-emptive measures. “Although such calamities are difficult to predict, it was the duty of engineers to desilt storm water drains, clear hurdles for easy flow of rain water, prepare emergency response teams like t ree m anagement, Prahari and others,” the officials said. BBMP even faltered in responding to the flood of complaints following the deluge as officials were busy in last - minute preparation to launch canteens, said sources.
Engg dept worked day and night on canteens
WITH the entire BBMP machinery working to keep the Chief Minister’s ambitious Indira Canteens ready, it is said that this led to a lack of rain preparedness.The Palike had to desilt the 850 - km storm water drain (SWD) network before rain but work on only 400 km was completed. For instance, the desilting work is still under way at Kumaraswamy Layout and Shanthi Nagar , which witnessed heavy flooding on Tuesday. Small walls were built on the SWDs to remove silt and th ese were to be demolished after work. But when it rained the walls meant to remove the silt blocked water flow, worsening the situation, residents said.
Ramanath, a resident of Wilson Garden, said that the BBMP should have completed the entire desilting work before monsoon but it failed.Admitting that the engineering department worked day and night for the past two months to meet the deadline of Indira Canteens, Mayor Padmavathi said there was a slight delay on the part of storm water drain wing in desilting .She also said that there should be dedicated disaster management cell with BBMP to mitigate the crisis in case of heavy rain.
Tuesday’s after-effects
On JC Road, near Purnima theatre, a large chunk of the road caved in on Tuesday night
The basement of the BMTC bus depot at Koramangala 6th Block was inundated with 4 feet of water
Several areas suffered power cuts, and broadband and landline connections were also affected