BENGALURU: The heavy rain that lashed Bengaluru on the intervening night of Monday-Tuesday caused widespread havoc with many parts of the city experiencing flooding and people spending a sleepless night calling control rooms for help.
The residents of Horamavau were the worst affected. They approached the MLA Byrathi Basvaraj and BBMP engineers for help, but to no avail. “Every time it rains, the roads get flooded and water enters our homes on 2nd Cross Horamavu, Patel Estate.
This is because the BWSSB has prolonged its project of laying water and sewage lines. We have been suffering since September last year. We had approached Byrathi Basavaraj, who is also the urban development minister, and he assured us that the problem would be solved. But nothing has been done till now. Our problems increase with every downpour,” said Manil Joshua, a resident.
According to the BBMP control room, complaints of water gushing into homes were reported from Kempapura Agrahara, Telecom Layout, Bhuvaneshwari Nagar, Shankara Nagar, 6th Cross Devi Nagar, Anugraha Layout, Shamanna Nagar, Mahadevapura and Bommanahalli.
20 departing flights delayed from KIA
The maximum number of complaints came from Yelahanka zone. Many residents complained that water mixed with slush entered their homes. While the BBMP sent teams to clear the water, nothing was done to remove the muck and contaminated water in their sumps, they said. “After every downpour, we have to spend money, call for agency people to drain out water from sumps and then refill them. This is becoming a costly and tedious affair,” said another resident of Horamavu.
The rain delayed 20 departing flights from the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), which recorded the highest ever rainfall of 18 cm of rain between Monday night and Monday morning. Flyers were inconvenienced as the kerb area of the airport was flooded since 8 pm on Monday. Water had risen up to 3 feet and taxis and private cars found it difficult to move around the airport. It was total chaos till midnight.
Local villagers brought in tractors to ferry flyers to the airport, as many vehicles could not enter the premises. DCP, North East Division, CK Baba, said it was from the Begur Road entry that passengers opted to use tractors. A garment shop owner told TNIE, “I overheard tractor drivers chatting late at night that they had made good money charging Rs 200 per passenger for a short 3 km trip to the airport.” A KIA official spokesperson said 20 flights to Kolkata, Patna, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, Mumbai, Goa and Mangaluru suffered delays between 5.30 pm and 11. 59 pm on Monday.
21 lives lost, says bommai
CM Basavaraj Bommai, who held a meeting to review the rain damage on Tuesday, said 21 people have died due to the downpour from October 1 to 12. P4
Cloudburst
The IMD rain monitoring station at the KIA recorded 18 cm of rain between Monday night and Tuesday morning — the highest ever that the Met observatory has recorded since its inception in 2011
Till October 12, Karnataka recorded 98.6 mm of rainfall against the normal 62.9 mm
Since the beginning of October, Bengaluru has recorded 181.9 mm of rain
IMD says the city will receive rainfall for the entire week