BENGALURU: The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), which claimed to have undertaken monsoon preparedness weeks in advance, stands exposed as hundreds of trees were uprooted, drains clogged, roads turned rivulets on Wednesday.
Due to heavy rains, 10 lives were lost. Ironically, corporation engineers under GBA are taking up desilting of drain only during rains and the GBA forest cell having only 15 staff has made the situation worse.
The forest officials under GBA responsible for pruning trees and responding to emergencies are also deployed on census duty.
According to Professor Inayatuallah M, Water Resource Expert from University Visvesvaraya College Of Engineering, what is lacking in GBA is a proper study of hydrology. “With rapid urbanisation, topography has changed, and the drainage system has been severely altered, resulting in floods, sinkholes and loss of lives. In Bengaluru, deaths due to man-made disaster is more compared to natural disaster,” said Inayuthalla.
Ripping the GBA apart, urban expert Ashwin Mahesh said, the GBA’s claim of monsoon preparedness is absolute rubbish. Their design to carry stormwater is wrong, footpath alignment is also wrong. “There is no third-party assessment for their claim on monsoon preparedness. They just go by their own self-certification every season, and the tragedy keeps striking.”
“The flooding of low-lying areas and roads is due to bad design. The engineers must work on seepage of water, but they transport water to such vulnerable locations,” said Mahesh.
While the GBA stated that engineers concerned have been asked to keep the drains clean, take up desilting, and prune trees in advance of the monsoon, Sandeep Anirudhan, Convenor, Citizens’ Agenda for Bengaluru, said, disaster preparedness in Bengaluru remains largely inadequate in practice.
“Frequent urban flooding highlights weak stormwater infrastructure, lake encroachments, and poor policy implementation. While policy frameworks exist, enforcement, infrastructure upgrades, and community-level readiness lag significantly. Without strengthening everyday governance capacity and accountability, meaningful disaster preparedness will remain elusive. Our city corporations do not yet have the capacity to even inspect every street at least once a week, to ensure compliances.
We have neither manpower nor equipment assigned for these necessary governance tasks. In modern cities, this happens routinely. Until we fix this, we cannot be ready for anything out of the routine, like emergencies.”
Measures by GBA for pre-monsoon preparation
Desilting and rehabilitation works of primary and secondary storm water drains (SWD) should be undertaken on a war-footing.
Construction of culverts at 31 important places under the NDRF grant.
Installation of sluice gates at 127 places to control the water level in lakes.
Construction of additional side drains and cross-drainage works.
Installation of grates in key areasand silt traps at key areas.
Mandatory implementation of the pre-monsoon desilting schedule.
Deployment of special teams in highly sensitive areas.
Wednesday’s rainfall and its impact on Bengaluru
The highest rainfall on Wednesday was recorded in Cottonpet, Binnipet, Sampangiramanagar, Shivajinagar and Subhash Nagar wards of Bengaluru Central Municipal Corporation at 92.00 mm. The average rainfall here in 55 mm.
A total of 226 trees have fallen, and 623 branches have broken in the GBA limits.
30 teams and four cranes deployed for the clearance work.
15 teams from the fire department,
4 from the SDRF and 10 private teams deployed from Wednesday onwards to respond to emergencies.
Complaints received through telephone, helpline and Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) regarding water logging on roads in more than 62 areas across the city.
Wall collapse in 3 areas, flooding into houses in 105 areas and damage to infrastructure in 1 area have been reported.
