BENGALURU:By no measure can the 22 mm of rain the city witnessed on Monday night be described anywhere close to a calamity. But Bengaluru’s civic inadequacies not only saw four trees being uprooted across the city, but also caused heavy flooding on Bannerghatta Road and Mysuru Road, in JP Nagar, Chandra Layout, Jayanagar, parts of BTM Layout and Girinagar, besides leaving the road under the Hebbal flyover, heavily inundated.
Several motorists, who started out early in the morning from the vicinity of the Hebbal flyover to beat the morning traffic on their way to work, found themselves stuck on the heavily flooded road under the flyover, causing a huge traffic gridlock. Several apartments off Bannerghatta Road saw their basements flooded, with most of these areas located in original lake areas. The infamous Bellandur Lake also started frothing, adding to the woes of residents nearby.
The weather forecast is rather gloomy. Following the end of a dry spell of South West monsoon season, light to moderate showers will continue in Bengaluru over the next to three to four days.On Monday night, Bengaluru Urban received moderate to rather heavy rainfall with Kallubalu, in Anekal taluk, receiving a maximum of 80.55 mm rainfall. Bengaluru Urban district as a whole received 22 mm of rainfall during the day.
Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, who is also the Bengaluru Development Minister, tweeted that over the last two days about 300 trees were uprooted across the city due to the thundershowers. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike control room said that only four fell due to heavy rains overnight until Tuesday morning. Three of these were uprooted due to heavy winds, while one was left charred after an electric pole fell on it. No casualties were reported.
Widespread rain forecast for city
On the positive side, due to the showers, Bengaluru Urban became the first district to receive showers marginally above normal in September and only the fifth among 30 districts to have received normal showers.All the remaining districts have received deficit rainfall in September.According to Indian Meteorological Department, fairly widespread rainfall is forecast for Bengaluru Urban. However, the intensity of the rainfall in South Interior Karnataka region will reduce, resulting in relatively less showers than the rains recorded in the region during the late hours of Sunday.