BENGALURU: “When there is a cloudburst like this, what can BBMP do?” That was Mayor G. Padmavathi on the overnight downpour which brought the famed IT city to its knees. If the First Citizen herself throws up her hands, you can imagine the citizens’ plight, said an exasperated resident of Jayanagar.
And the civic agencies’ failure in tackling even this one rain was exposed yet again. Nothing has changed since the last monsoon: neither the pathetic conditions nor the authorities’ indifference, say citizens who had to spend a sleepless night removing water from their flooded houses.
Here is more bad news: The met department officials warn that this unusual rain will continue for another three days.
Just see what havoc the non-stop rain created: overflowing stormwater drains, uprooted trees, traffic jams, flooded roads, power cuts, water gushing into hundreds of houses, parking lots in the basements, and commercial establishments.
Several areas were flooded, exposing Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s tall claims of clearing encroachment of stormwater drains.
South Bengaluru, including Koramangala, HSR Layout, Madiwala, Adugodi, Kodichikkahalli, Uttarahalli, Anugraha Layout, Bilekhahalli, Bannerghatta Road, Shantinagar, Ulsoor, Murugeshpalya, Viveknagar, to name a few, saw water on roads at knee-level. The BBMP’s control room was flooded with calls on waterlogging and tree fall.
Though Tuesday was a public holiday on account of Independence Day, yet, traffic jams were witnessed at many places. “Potholes sprung up on several roads, including Outer Ring Road near PESIT College. Unaware of their depth, commuters try to negotiate them on a waterlogged road after rain and this leads to traffic jam. Being a holiday, it was supposed to be a traffic-free day, but that was not the case,” said Girinagar resident Rajeeva R.
A senior official from BBMP said the city drains’ actual capacity is to hold 80mm of rainwater. But due to encroachments and poor maintenance, the capacity has reduced to 35mm. “That means, even if it rains continuously for half an hour, it is vulnerable to flooding. Last year, Bengaluru witnessed worse flooding, which forced Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to intervene and get SWD encroachments cleared,” the official said.
BBMP officials had identified 1,955 encroachments on stormwater drains that were causing obstruction to the flow of water. Most of these encroachments have been cleared by BBMP officials, claimed Mayor Padmavathi.
If the drains are cleared, how is that the city is flooded, ask residents. The mayor has no answer.
She merely said: “The water has entered 150 houses. BBMP is paying `5,000 as compensation to all the houses where major damage has taken place.”
An ordeal for this couple
Sethumadhava (71) and his wife are residents of Kodichikkahalli off Bannerghatta Road. They had a sleepless night on Monday night.“Water is gushing into our house and the two of us have been trying to remove it non-stop. We have no power and can’t even go out to buy milk. The road outside is completely flooded. This shows BBMP’s preparedness for such situations,’’ Sethumadhava said.
“The width of the stormwater drain is not uniform in the area, which has seen floods thrice in just one year. Last July 31, this April and now. Have they not learnt any lesson? On paper, the civic body says D22 crore has been spent to remove silt and rebuilt drains. But where has all the money gone?” he asked.
