BENGALURU: While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is promising to take many measures to help the city be free of water-logging during rains, several parts of the city continue to be inundated.
When rain lashed the city on Monday night, places like Horamavu Road, Silk Board, BTM Layout, Bannerghatta Road, Anjaneya Temple on Mysore Road, Ejipura, DJ Halli, HSR Layout, ST Bed in Koramangala, Puttenahalli, Madiwala Road, Doddanekundi Village Underpass, Hennur railway underpass, Kadugodi underpass, Kodigehalli underpass were almost flooded, with commuters having a tough time crossing the stretches. Many blamed the BBMP’s lack of apathy for not fixing the water-logged places.
A school bus was stranded in Doddanekundi village underpass on Tuesday. Luckily, there were no schoolchildren in the bus as the driver was on his way to pick the child up. After months ago, another school bus was stranded at the same place after heavy showers, and three children and a teacher were rescued.
“For the past two to three years, we have been having a problem with the underpass. With even minimal rain, it gets flooded. We have brought the issue to the BBMP several times. Similarly, even the ORR Doddanekkundi underpass gets flooded during showers. BBMP has to design the underpasses with a proper drainage system or install pumps which will automatically drain water immediately,” said Clement Jayakumar, member of Doddanekkundi Rising.
Similarly, the stretch of Horamavu Agara Road was also water-logged due to which a truck got stuck in a pothole and tilted towards one side. “The road here is already in a pathetic condition and when it gets water-logged, vehicles are bound to get stuck in potholes and craters. The Mayor had also visited our road but we don’t see anything happening. The roads should be fixed immediately or accidents may happen,” especially the motorists,” said Kavya T, resident of Horamavu Road.
Naveen Reddy from BTM Layout 2nd Stage said the stretch gets water-logged every time it rains.
“A few months back when it rained, the whole stretch was water-logged and the water level was knee-deep. Many people went and rescued dogs too. It’s been more than three months since that but there was no action taken,” he said.
However, a BBMP official said that they are being active and taking immediate steps. “They are teams of 24 who immediately assist to water-prone places. We have increased our equipments too. People can even call our control room and the workers will be alerted immediately.”
MAYOR MEETS ENGINEERS
Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun held a meeting at the South Zone office on Tuesday with the chief engineer, assistant engineers and executive engineers. She instructed them to restore the roads, black spots, water-logged places, repairing of footpaths and street lights. She said that that work should be carried out efficiently or they will be suspended. She informed that special awards will be given to to engineers who perform diligently.