BENGALURU: The brief but furious thunderstorm on Thursday evening turned Palace Road into a watery trap, just 100 metres from the chief secretary’s official residence. Between 6.10 pm and 6.40 pm, the skies unleashed heavy rain that left the iconic stretch flooded, with a massive gush of water pouring out from the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) straight onto the road, worsening the chaos.
In the middle of this deluge, a manhole cover got washed away, leaving a gaping hole. A red scooter rider, unaware of the danger, rode straight into the open manhole. For a heart-stopping second, disaster looked certain. But alert passersby sprang into action, grabbing the rider and the vehicle in time to prevent a serious accident.
TNIE was on the spot to witness the narrow escape. A local resident immediately reached out to jurisdictional MLA Rizwan Arshad, who contacted BBMP officials. Within a short time, a BBMP team arrived and restored the manhole cover.
Locals revealed that several vehicles had already been stuck in the open manhole earlier. A passerby had tried to mark the hazard by placing a portion of a tree trunk over it. But the barrier created fresh trouble as buses and cars started hitting the protruding log, stalling traffic. Frustrated drivers and passengers stepped out onto the flooded road and dragged the heavy trunk aside. Residents said the city’s drains desperately need urgent desilting and cleaning before the real monsoon hits in about two weeks. “This is just the beginning,” one said.
A team member from Rizwan Arshad’s office said they will tour vulnerable areas and ensure BBMP replaces washed away manhole covers quickly.