Bengaluru: Heavy rains, accompanied by gusty winds, on Sunday evening uprooted six fully grown trees and brought down branches of over 25 trees across the city. The heavy but brief spell once again exposed the city's fragile infrastructure and threw traffic out of gear in many parts of the city. Indiranagar, Koramangala, Sarjapura, Shivajinagar and Chamrajpet plunged into darkness as the power supply was cut for over four hours.
While the city’s rain reading was “traces”, at the HAL Airport it was 12.5mm. The Indian Meteorological Department said that isolated pars in the state received heavy rains on Sunday.
Trees and branches fell in Indiranagar, Koramangala, Whitefield, Ulsoor, Domlur, J.P. Nagar, HAL, R.T. Nagar and BTM Layout, said officials manning the BBMP control room.
Roads in Koramangala, Domlur and several other parts of the city were flooded, while rainwater mixed with sewage flowed on the streets in Ejipura and Vivek Nagar.
Bescom helpline dysfunctional
While Bescom’s helpline number 1912 went dead in the evening, complaints sent to the power board's Whatsapp number, 9449844640, too did not get any response.Ms Jayanthi N., Bescom general manager, customer relations, said, “Twelve electric poles have crashed because of trees and branches falling on them. The most affected was the east division, which covers Indiranagar and surrounding areas. Our men are at work and are trying to restore the power supply at the earliest,” she said.
The highway was flooded in many parts slowing down the traffic, while fallen trees and branches made it worse.
Traffic on Bengaluru-Mysuru Road hit
Traffic on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway came to a complete standstill near Ramanagar as many trees fell on the road. It took over three hours for the officials to clear the trees from the road and bring traffic back to normal.
There was heavy traffic on the road as many were returning from Mysuru after the weekend break. The highway was flooded in many parts slowing down the traffic, while fallen trees and branches made it worse. “I am struck in the traffic for the last one hour. The vehicles are moving very slowly," said Vishal, who was coming from Mysuru.
