BENGALURU: “It was a nail-biting experience for nearly 10 passengers on board in an NWKRTC bus which was stuck in the Kino Theatre underpass near Anand Rao Circle on Tuesday night.
NWKRTC officials said passengers were travelling in an ordinary bus (KA 25 F 3119) plying from Bengaluru to Bailhongal. “The driver could not move the vehicle after water from the underpass got into the silencer. He seems to have miscalculated the depth of the water in the under pass as it was night. More than half of the vehicle was submerged in the water,” said a senior NWKRTC official.
A video of passengers climbing on top of the bus as the water level rose has also gone viral on social media. The bus driver said, “The conductor first climbed above the bus through the air duct on top, after which the remaining passengers were pulled up.” The driver added that as the bus had stopped below the railway track, all the passengers managed to get on to the railway tracks with the help of locals.
However, NWKRTC officials denied reports that the driver and conductor fled from the scene.
“It was not the fault of the driver. They alerted us about the incident and immediately a towing vehicle was sent to the spot. We have also shifted passengers to another bus which was heading to Bailhongal”. This is not the first time that a bus got stuck in the Kino Theatre underpass during rain.
Experts said Kino Theatre underpass is prone to flooding during rain because of the poor design. However, BBMP is yet to come up with a permanent solution to reduce the flooding.
Officials said digging a sump and deploying two pumps to drain out excess water turned out to be ineffective.