BENGALURU: It was a dazzling sound and light show across Bengaluru’s skies, before the actual dramatic downpour. As the night sky shuddered and split on Sunday, there were fears of a storm and the resultant widespread damage. What followed was heavy rain, accompanied by strong winds, loud thunder and lightning. However, the squall did not last long. Various parts of the city came under rain from around 7 pm to about 8.30pm. Six trees were uprooted in different parts of the city. No casualties were reported.
Hosur Road, Bannerghata Road, Hennur Outer Ring Road, Banashankari Outer Ring Road, Mysuru Road, Double Road, Ballari Road from Windsor Square to Kempapura, Tin Factory, Tannery Road and Nandidurga Road saw traffic congestion following rain. Srinivas Reddy, director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNMDC) said, “There is cyclonic circulation in South Interior Karnataka and a trough running from north to south. This is the reason for the rain.”
A maximum of 144mm was recorded at Kasgattapura, while Gopalpura recorded 130mm, Hesaraghatta 74mm, Cottonpet 90mm, Banaswadi 88mm, Bagalagunte 92mm, HBR Nagar 54mm, Hoysalanagar 58mm, Ramamurthynagar 56mm, Kammanahalli 54mm, and RR Nagar recorded 52 mm.
Metro services hit for 44 mins on purple line
Lighting on Sunday evening damaged electrical equipment at Baiyappanahalli Metro station resulting in disruption of train operations for 44 minutes on the Purple Line. No train could depart from or reach Baiyappanahalli. According to an official release, “Power supply was not available between 7.23 pm and 8.01 pm. During this period, short loop operations were done between Indira Nagar and Mysore Road Metro stations.” Full operations resumed at 8.01 pm.
While top Metro officials, including the Chief Public Relations Officer, refused to answer calls, L Suryanarayana Murthy, vice-president of BMRCL Union, told TNIE, “Beakers and capacitors from equipment which supplies power to run trains got damaged. Anti-lightning equipment could not withstand the severity of the lightning.”