Bengaluru braces up for urban flooding

Bengaluru: With the threat of floods looming over Karnataka, Bengaluru's municipality is rustling up all the resources it can to tackle the annual problem of urban flooding.

Considering that the city is fighting the coronavirus outbreak at the same time, that's going to be quite a stretch.

The city has 209 areas prone to flooding out of which 153 are classed as 'sensitive' and 53 are 'extremely sensitive'.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said 28 sensors have been installed in storm water drains to warn the agency about the floods.

That's not nearly enough for a city of 8.4 million but people living areas not blessed with sensors have but to trust their ability to recognise a flood when they see one.

The sensors give BMP real-time infomation on parameters indicating that a deluge is nigh. Prasad said the municipality has spent Rs 15 crore on installing radar to obtain real-time information on rain intensity.

Urban flooding is an annual visitation upon Bengaluru in the monsoon months. This year, rains have been copious, with the city receiving 65 percent excess in June and July. So far in August rainfall is in 28 percent deficit.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a lot of rain over the next five days in most places in coastal and south interior Karnataka and at a few places over north Interior Karnataka.

The monsoon has been vigorous over south interior Karnataka and active over coastal Karnataka.

Several parts of Bengaluru were forecast to receive light and moderate rainfall on Saturday.

Heavy rainfall has filled the Cauvery to theh brink and there is an alert out for people downstream of the Krishnarajasagar dam from which water could be released.

Flood like situations are developing in Belagavi district to the north with levels rising in the Krishna and its tributaries due to rains in the western ghat areas of Maharashtra.