BENGALURU: Parts of HSR Layout bore the brunt of Saturday’s heavy rain, leading to heavily inundated roads and waterlogged basements, leaving residents temporarily immobile. In Sector 7, the water level was about 3-4 feet high on 15th and 18th Cross roads as a result of encroachment of storm water drains by some property owners. Residents of both streets woke up to find the basements of their homes and the roads entirely flooded. As a result, they couldn’t take out their vehicles.
As this was the fourth instance of waterlogging in the past one month, angry residents called MLA Satish Reddy and the BBMP’s zonal joint commissioner to the area to resolve the issue. “This road always gets flooded as water from all the neighbouring areas flows into it. Even fire tenders couldn’t reach the homes. This is the fourth time so much waterlogging has occurred in the past one month,” said Jayprakash Shetty, a resident of 15th Cross.
Speaking about the losses residents had suffered due to waterlogging, Srihari, another resident of the street, said, “The last time it rained heavily, my car, the inverter in the basement and the common elevator broke down.” He added that Fire and Emergency personnel had once also asked him for `800 to pump out water from the basement of his building. The personnel were also deployed to pump out the water collected at homes and streets.
Residents of 18th Cross gathered to protest against the inaction of civic bodies around 8 am on Saturday and called MLA Satish reddy and the BBMP Joint Commissioner of the zone to the spot. Reddy arranged for two excavators to pull down the constructions blocking the water flow, after which the water gradually drained out.
Jayprakash Reddy said residents of the street wanted to form an association to urge civic authorities to desilt the storm water drains. He said the BJP councillor of the ward always blamed the Congress government for not allocating funds to desilt the drains.
All the approach roads to 15th Cross were heavily waterlogged as a result of which residents couldn’t take out their vehicles until the water receded. D Ravishankar, a resident of the street, said the drainage had been built only three months ago and yet had proved to be ineffective.
Another resident, Pradeep Nagarajan, said the park on the street is infested with snakes. He said, “We’re risking our lives when we walk on the road. And as all roads leading to this street get flooded, even engineers of civic bodies are not able to get here.”
Ashish Arora, another resident of Sector 7 in HSR Layout, said all houses on his street did not have electricity for the past three days.
Snakes in Lalbagh
The heavy rain led to snakes coming out into the open at Lalbagh Botanical Garden. At least 10 snakes were seen caught in a net installed beside the lake. Horticulture Department Deputy Director at Lalbagh, Chandrashekar, said the rainwater would have inundated the burrows of the snakes, causing them to come out.