BENGALURU: Come rainy season and many areas in Mahadevpura zone go under water. This time round, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike engineers have come up with a plan to ensure there is no water-logging during monsoon. It has created a WhatsApp team with citizens who will alert it of such spots. A 10-person response team has also been formed for the first time in the zone. By June 12, before the monsoon hits Bengaluru, they plan to clear all the vulnerable spots.
BBMP has identified 31 vulnerable flooding spots in the area, of which there are 11 underpasses and 20 low-lying areas. Unlike the previous times where residents had to call various engineers to complain of water-logging, this time BBMP has assigned two special officers to monitor all these vulnerable spots.
While earlier small equipment were used to clear the water-logged places which would take a long time, this time 10 HP diesel-operated pumps have been procured, to pump water at a fast pace.
“Earlier, there were no pump sets, making it a challenge to pump out water. Now, contractors have procured these sets and placed it near the most vulnerable spots like the Outer Ring Road and Doddanekundi railway underpass, so they could be deployed at a short notice,” said Clement Jaykumar, BBMP councillor, Mahadevpura Zone.
He said that seven mechanised sweepers will be used to clean the debris on the roads so that it wouldn’t go into the drains and choke them. “With the tractors and sweepers in place, so far 340-400 tractorloads of silt has been removed. And work is on to desilt the storm water drains,” he said. BBMP Assistant Executive Engineer Imran P A said that Mahadevpura zone has 70 arterial and sub arterial roads of a total length of 260 km and that nine contractors will be in charge.
“We have taken up the work of desilting the shoulder drains on priority as the water from here goes into the storm water drains,” he said. Further, a separate WhatsApp group has been created with the contactors and the BBMP officers. The contractors need to give hourly updates of the work being done.