Bengaluru: As dark clouds hovered over the city on Tuesday morning, thousands of Bengalureans began to dread the aftermath. For, the residents of low-lying areas had already spent the midnight removing rain water from their flooded homes. The worst affected were the residents of Kuvempu Nagar, Journalist’s Colony, Shanthinagar, Ejipura, Anepalya, BTM Layout, Byatarayanapura, Chamarajpet and Koramangala (near Chinmaya School).
Though the BBMP maintained it was equipped to handle the rains and routine life had not gone haywire, Bengalureans had a different story to tell. It took nothing less than two hours for commuters to reach even a short distance from Indiranagar to Koramangala during peak hours.
Sunita Iyer, private firm employee took to Facebook, to share her rant. She said, “Two hours from Indiranagar to Koramangala... ONLY (for few)... Bangaloreans are facing the brunt of the city's terrible sewage management system. Rain gods blessing is more of a curse for the city's commuters. Potholes just add to the woes and let me not forget to mention drivers who are desperate to reach their destination... Wonder how this city will ever cope up with this never-ending dilemma?”
And by the end of the day, thousands of office-goers, bus passengers, autowallahas too shared the same feeling as they waded through water-logged, potholed roads.
Vehicles stranded on Koramangala 80 Feet Road as the city received rain on Tuesday evening too (Photo: Satish B.)
The BBMP’s lack of preparation to handle heavy showers was evident across the city once again. Overflowing drains, uprooted trees, flooded homes were some of the results of the civic agency’s inability to manage the rains.
Before the monsoons, the BBMP maintained that it would beef up its control room squads to ensure that emergencies were attended to immediatly.
However, despite the BBMP’s promise to press 40 control room squads into action, water logged roads brought traffic to halt in Kino theater junction, Tin Factory Junction, K.R Puram flyover, Lingarajapuram, Seshadripuram, Malleswaram and Koramangala Intermediate Ring Road.
Not only did the BBMP’s apathy affect the city during the heavy downpour, but even the absence of policemen in some of the crucial junctions like St John’s signal, Dairy Circle underpass, Wilson Garden signal, Indiranagar-Koramangala Ring Road resulted in gridlocks for many hours.
Mayor visits rain-hit areas, attends calls in control room
Mayor Manjunath Reddy said that the number of vulnerable areas due to rains had reduced to 26 from 100 and the civic agency was working towards drastically reducing this number too. “We will ensure that there will not be any sort of problem when it rains,” Mr Reddy said.
Early on Tuesday morning, the mayor visited some of the rain hit areas. In Shanthinagar, he was surprised when the local ward officials engaged in blame-game over maintenance of works. Irked with the lackadaisical attitude of the officials, he warned of action if they did not respond to citizens’ call. Later, he attended to grievances in the BBMP control room. He then instructed the zonal commissioners to respond to complaints in their zones immediately. He also directed all the ward level engineers to be responsive and alert as it is expected to rain in the next 2-3 days.
Many temples flooded
While it was a common affair to see Gali Anjaneyaswamy Temple flood during every rainy season, for the first time on Monday midnight, many temples in Avenue Road and surrounding areas too remained flooded. The city’s oldest temples like Dharmaraya Swamy Temple, Ganga Dhareshwara Temple and Jalakanteshwara Temple were submerged in rain water. According to BBMP control room officials, the civic agency workers were pressed into service for more than two hours to pump out the rain water. “The temples were cleaned before the Tuesday morning ‘pooja’ hours. Devotees visited the temple as usual on Tuesday morning,” the control room officials maintained.
A driveway of an apartment complex caved in, in Koramangala on Tuesday. The residents of the apartment were stranded as they could not drive out or drive in (Photo:DC)
Sudden rains over city are not untimely: Met department
The month of November started with heavy rain on the first two days — with 50.6 mm of rain recorded on Monday and 1.9 mm on Tuesday. Monday saw heavy showers, with most of the rain falling between 4 pm and 7 pm.
“This period is called the retreating southwest monsoon season. It is the period when there is rain activity on the eastern part of the southern peninsula which includes coastal Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema and Tamil Nadu-Pondicherry,” informs Dr Geeta Agnihotri, Director, Bangalore Met Department. She adds that the period from October to December is referred to as the north-east Monsoon season over peninsular India.
The sudden rains in the city are not untimely, says the Met department. “These rains are by no means unexpected and will continue on and off throughout November,” adds the director. The Meteorological Department also predicts that the the city will experience heavy rain like this for the next two days, after which the intensity will subside.
“There are two cyclonic circulations; one over coastal Andhra Pradesh and another over coastal Karnataka. These circulation systems are causing rain in the city,” informs the Met department official. “After two days the intensity will reduce gradually unless there is another system circulation,” informs the Met department official.
Speaking about the onset, the director points out, “The normal date of the onset of the northeast monsoon is around 20 October, with a deviation of about a week on either side.”
According to the Meteorological Department the rainfall over the southern peninsula towards the end of the southwest monsoon season is mainly in the interior districts and it generally occurs in the afternoon, evening or early part of the night. As the season advances the rainfall is heavier in the coastal districts with the interior areas getting less rain.
Stagnated rain water in the basement of an apartment in Domlur Layout (Photo: R. Samuel)
Q&A with Bengaluru Mayor: Everything is under control
What are the major losses due to the last two days' heavy downpour?
Luckily, there has been no loss of life or damage to any property due to the rainfall. Major complaints have been of water stagnation on road and rain water flooding homes in low lying areas. This time, there aren’t many complaints of uprooted trees or even overflowing drains. Hence, everything is under control and there are very minimum rain related complaints.
Why is the BBMP so unprepared during such heavy downpour?
The city has received 95 mm rainfall in 24 hours and no amount of preparedness could help us prevent these complaints. There are no disasters as such due to this heavy rainfall and complaints have been addressed immediately. It is also the reason why the city has not collapsed even after such heavy rains.
But are there enough control room squads to rush into emergency?
Well, we do have one squad for every constituency, apart from one at the head office. In times of emergency, squads from other constituencies are brought in. We have full force to address any emergency.
The drains are not de-silted and due to the potholes, traffic is piling up on rainy days. Isn’t this lack of preparation?
Some major drains have not been desilted as there was confusion between a few departments over who should take up the works. However, in most of the places the tender to desilt drains was awarded with asphalting roads. But due to last week’s rains potholes have increased. We are aware of that but are unable to fill them due to the rain.
(Q&A: As told to Shwetha Satyanarayan)
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