BENGALURU: The efforts of the Deputy Chief Minister, the Mayor and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner, to rid the city of flooding issues, came to nought on Monday as several areas of Bengaluru witnessed flooding with just a few hours of good rain in the evening.
Across South Bengaluru, trees were uprooted and homes were flooded with rainwater as stormwater drains could not keep up with the rainfall.
The issue of stormwater drains needing desilting was one of the topics that came up during multiple meetings for monsoon preparedness, which were held this year.
On Monday, residents of BTM Layout were the worst hit with water logging on the roads. People who were out during the rains said that in many places, they had to walk in knee deep water. “The rains started at 4.30 pm and a dog was trapped in the basement of my apartment block. An elderly couple that rushed to its rescue were also trapped. Other residents rescued them,” said Naveen Reddy, a resident of the layout.
Just a few weeks back, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, also the minister in-charge of the city, held a review meeting in which 246 low lying areas were identified as critical. It was decided that all eight zones would have teams to pump out water and that desilting of stormwater drains would be carried out.
Traffic police chief Harishekaran P had also sent a list to the BBMP to help it tackle waterlogging and pothole issues.
None of these measures came to the rescue of citizens on Monday. The rainfall measured in some parts of area stood at 52 mm in Golahalli, 58mm at Gottigere, 64mm at Anekal, 60 mm at Nelarulu, 72 mm at Bilkehalli, 78mm at Arekere and 84mm at Hemmigepura.
At Horamavu, a four-storeyed building tilted due to the rains, causing panic among residents and neighbours. The families were evacuated immediately and BBMP engineers ordered the demolition of the building, citing substandard work as the reason for the mishap.
The BBMP control room received complaints of four trees being uprooted while big branches of nine other trees were severed. Gusty winds led to the Bengaluru Traffic Police warning motorists on Twitter to not park their vehicles under trees. Two parakeets were found dead in Indiranagar under an uprooted tree.
Officials had earlier pegged the onset of monsoon by the end of may, however, that may change as the India Meteorological Department has now forecast rain and thunderstorms in the evenings or at night till Tuesday.The temperatures in the coming week are likely to be between 21 and 35 degrees Celsius.
Power cuts make matters worse
To add to the misery of residents, power cuts occurred at several places with restoration taking place only late in the night. Abhilash T, a resident of HSR Layout, said, “Everytime it starts raining the electricity supply is cut. BESCOM says they are taking up various works in order to fix this, but nothing has happened yet. It is so frustrating.” According to BESCOM, several areas of Bengaluru faced power disruption multiple times with as many as 11,180 complaints received. BESCOM had already warned of power cuts on the weekend.