BENGALURU: An overnight cloudburst pulverised North Bengaluru, especially Yelahanka zone and other key city areas, exposing IT City’s fragile infrastructure and inadequacies in enduring heavy rain.
The cloudburst that brought 157mm rain in six hours over Yelahanka zone alone, from Monday midnight to early Tuesday morning, completely flooded at least 10 residential layouts, leaving thousands of residents stranded in the wee hours of the day.
The inundation, which subjected residents to waist-deep misery, forced the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force to rush boats to evacuate stranded and panicking people. Besides Yelahanka, IT and industrial corridors of Mahadevapura and Dasarahalli zones — which include manufacturing hubs like Sarjapur, Marathahalli, Whitefield, Bellandur and Peenya Industrial Area — too were hit hard on Tuesday.
As per data shared by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre and India Meteorological Department (IMD), from October 1 to 22, the city recorded 241mm rainfall, which is the highest in the past 19 years. In 2005, during the same time period, the city had received 291mm of rainfall. In 2024, the city recorded the fourth highest rainfall, against the normal of 118mm.
IMD Director (Bengaluru) Puviyarasan said till 8.30am, the city received 264.5mm rainfall. Till 8.30pm October 22, the city received 23.6mm rainfall. An orange alert has been issued for Bengaluru and surrounding areas for the next 48 hours (till Thursday evening).
Chaos on the roads
Flooded roads, chaotic traffic, uprooted trees and branches were a common sight as rain continued unabated until Tuesday morning, as a drizzle or moderately heavy form throughout Tuesday. Normal life was thrown out of gear as many were stranded due to non-availability of autos and cabs across the city. Students and office-goers were the worst-affected due to the continuous rain.
Traffic jams were reported across the city, including on Airport Road and Nelamangala-Bengaluru National Highway. Due to heavy rain in Hebbal-Nagawara valley, downstream Horamavu was also flooded. In Devanahalli in Bengaluru Rural, Vijayapura Layout was flooded in just one hour between 2pm and 3pm.
Areas like Vijayanagar, Magadi Road, Rajajinagar, Manjunathnagar, Raj Bhavan, Hebbal, Mehkri Circle were waterlogged. Roads turned into rivers in Sarjapur, Bellandur, Devarabeesanahalli, HSR Layout, and Karthik Nagar near Marathahalli, Mahadevapura and surrounding areas, triggering traffic jams.
20 flights delayed, five diverted from KIA
A huge tree was uprooted near Halli Mane in Malleswaram, damaging an autorickshaw and injuring a hotel employee.
Outer Ring Road, between Iblur and Marathahlli, was completely congested, prompting traffic police to issue an advisory to commuters to avoid the road, due to waterlogging on service roads. The severe rains also delayed at least 20 flights, with five diverted to other destinations.
Blame it on nature: DKS
While citizens battled the havoc, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who is also Bengaluru Development Minister, blamed it on nature, comparing the situation with heavily polluted New Delhi and the recent unprecedented heavy rain that inundated Dubai. He was reacting to questions from the media on the plight of Bengaluru — a city on the global map — whenever it rained heavily.
Shivakumar portrayed himself to be an affected citizen, saying that on his way back from Challakere to Bengaluru on Tuesday, he too was stranded in 2-ft deep water near Nelamangala.
Venting their anger against the government, especially BBMP, citizens wondered how many years it would take for them to find permanent solutions to the city’s woes.
Neelufur Ahmed, a resident of Sai Baba Layout in KR Puram in Mahadevapura zone, broke down, saying she had repeatedly spent money to clean the water sump and related services. “I got it fixed thrice in just a week. However, our MLA Byrathi Basavaraj has asked us to ‘adjust’ this season, saying he will get the problem fixed during summer. I am frustrated,” she said.