Heavy rains lashed Bengaluru on Wednesday evening. It continued to pour for several hours bringing the traffic to a standstill in many areas of the city.
Koramangala, BTM Layout, Domlur, Indiranagar, Jayanagar, Kammanahalli, Outer Ring Road, Mysuru Road, Race Course Road and Bannerghatta Road were some of the areas that were inundated resulting in snail-paced traffic. "There were bottlenecks near Silk Board and Mahadevapura. Mysuru Road too experience slow moving traffic," an official with the Bengaluru Traffic Police said.
The shoddy work on desilting the storm water drains resulted in massive water logging in several areas.
According to officials with the BBMP rain helpline, residents of BTM Layout complained of water gushing into their homes and completely inundating it. "We have deployed people to pump out the water. Until now (9.40 pm) no other major flooding complaint has come in and no complaints of trees falling have been reported," the official said.
The streets of Jayanagar were inundated, leaving people to wade through knee deep water. The traffic on Bannerghatta Road too came to a standstill with cars having to stay put due to severe inundation.
"There was 3ft water on Bannerghatta Road at around 8 pm but the water level is receding. Cars and motorists had to stop until the water receded to move forward," the BBMP official said.
The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre said that Domlur experienced 86 mm rainfall between 7.45 and 8.20 pm, there was 66 mm rain recorded in KR Puram, 62 mm in Mahadevapura, 54 mm in Bommanahalli and 86 mm in Korena Agrahara areas.
A BBMP engineer working with the storm water drain department, said that the Palike has been able to desilt and clean up only a third of the storm water drains in the city. "The problem is that many of them are actually sewage drains. Once BWSSB cleans it up, we can manage it. No matter how many times we clean up the drains, the sewage keeps flowing into it. That's why even with minimal rainfall there is flooding," the engineer Bettegowda added.
The Indian Meteorological Department has issued an alert predicting heavy rainfall for the next two days. Chief Minister Kumaraswamy has asked BBMP officials to be on high alert and take measures to avert mishaps. "Rain and winds could get stronger in the next couple of days and hence people in low-lying areas must be cautious," the CMO said.
Helpline numbers for rains:
BBMP: 080 22221188, 080 221000311