BENGALURU: The extremely hot summer this year might have faded memories of last year’s monsoon nightmares but the recent showers the city witnessed have brought them back with a bang. Every year, several areas in the city get flooded due to rains. Places like HSR layout, Koramangala, Ejipura, BTM Layout, Nandini layout, Thanisandra, Shantinagar and KR Puram experience routine flooding, thanks to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s apathy. The New Indian Express spoke to several residents in these areas, all of whom said that they were waiting for the summer to end but are now faced with the reality of having to deal with rainwater entering their homes or flooding their basements.
“I have clicked many pictures of our street and shown it to officials. The whole road is flooded and water enters our house. This problem has been there for 20 years. My children are scared every year as the water rises to around 3 feet in height. Officials just say that they will find a solution but this never happens,” said Vardraj, a resident of Ejipura 20th cross road for the past 30 years.
In HSR layout, Ravi Gowda, an entrepreneur, has to deal with a flooded basement parking lot whenever it rains. “A storm water drain was built in 2017 but even this did not help. The road height was raised but to no avail. Even pumps cannot keep up with the amount of water that floods the basement,” he rued. Aarya S, who lives in an apartment complex in Maruthi nagar had a similar story to tell. “We have more than 200 people living in the apartment and last year, many vehicles parked in the basement were half drowned and stopped working. The local drain was not desilted and we paid the price,” she said adding that they were hoping the BBMP would help with a solution this year.
According to a member of the ward committee for Hagadur, Varthur Kodi is the most affected area in the city during monsoons. “Water always enters into houses, making people’s life miserable. We were told that storm water drains are being desilted and we asked for more details on the procedure. It should be made transparent. We certainly hope that the drains are cleared before monsoon,” the member said.BBMP officials on the ground believe that flooding might be inevitable for these low lying areas in spite of any measures they might take up.