BENGALURU: Monday evening’s spell of steady rain brought down temperatures and left the city soaking wet, in a sequel to Sunday’s overnight rain.
The IMD has predicted heavy rainfall accompanied by gusty winds, to moderate rainfall for the next three days across South Interior Karnataka, including Bengaluru city. It had issued a yellow alert for 11 districts, especially along the coast last week, predicting “heavy to very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall”.
Meanwhile, 45mm of overnight rain flooded over 20 homes in BDA Layout, Kasturinagar, on Monday morning. The rain left main roads flooded, impacting traffic on Ramamurthy Nagar Road leading to Hoskote, and Veerasandra near Hosur Road early Monday morning. A tree was uprooted at NRI Layout in Ramamurthy Nagar.
According to residents of Kasturinagar, at 12.30am, water from the drains swelled, gushed on to roads and into homes, damaging sumps, basements, lifts and furniture.
An underpass connecting Kasturinagar West, Puravankara Midtown apartments, and areas of Vijinapura to Tin Factory is flooded, and residents have to take a detour of 4-6km to reach Tin Factory Metro Station or bus stop. Residents have flagged a lack of coordination between the Railways and BBMP, and urged for better coordination.
The reason for flooding was attributed to desilting of north side of Benniganahalli Lake pending for 25 years, and stormwater drain work in the lake surroundings.
Ramanath Rao, director of Kasturinagar Welfare Association, recalled floods in Kasturinagar for the first time in May this year, and wondered why a planned Bangalore Development Authority layout was prone to floods. The flooding on Sunday midnight was the second such incident, and indicates that desilting of the lake and stormwater drain work should be taken up on priority, he said.
The north side of the lake is cut off due to railway tracks on three sides. Though the lake is the property of BBMP, access to it depends on the Railways. If the lake is desilted and stormwater drain from Kasturinagar west side is fixed, besides the inlet between north and south of the lake, flooding will stop, Rao said.
Railway and BBMP officials held a joint inspection, and an official said BBMP will be allowed to carry out desilting work and access will be given from west side of Kasturinagar.
Basheer Jamadar, a member of Kasturinagar Residents’ Welfare Association, said, “The underpass is a link to Ramamurthy Nagar, Horamavu and Whitefield via Tin Factory. Every time it rains, the underpass is shut for traffic, and motorists have to take a 6km detour to reach Tin Factory.”
Rakhi Paul Nandy, a resident of Puravankara Midtown, said there are two motor pumps installed by BBMP but one does not work and there is no permanent solution, so apartment residents are stranded during rain.
BBMP Assistant Executive Engineer for Major Roads Bhagyashree said there is no permanent solution for underpass flooding, and sought solutions from the people.
Rainfall across city (in MM)
Doddabidarikallu: 42
Bagalagunte: 35
Shettyhalli: 28.5
Yelahanka: 27.5
Chokkasandra: 24
Chowdeshwari: 20.5
Sampangirama Nagar: 16.5
Source: Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre