Wet spell exposes city’s infrastructure faultlines

Team NT
Bengaluru

Rain battered Bengaluru on Friday even as the city reeled from the damage caused by the torrential downpour on the previous day. BBMP officials said they had received complaints about tree fall and Storm Water Drains (SWDs) overflowing on Friday.

“There was a drain that overflowed in Shankarpuram near Popular Hospital (name of the facility) in ward 142. Other than that branches of trees fell in JP Nagar third stage and Jayanagar ninth block, 26th main,” a BBMP official said. Another BBMP official said they had received a lone complaint of tree fall. “A tree fell near the Malleswaram area. Also, a drain overflowed in Srirampura, which is ward number 95. Our ward engineer visited the site and has unblocked the drain and the problem has been fixed,” he said. Apart from that, tree branches also fell in Jayamahal extension, a BBMP official confirmed.

Taqi Khatib, a resident of Byrsandra near Jayanagar first block east, said that rains had caused a power outage late at night, which was fixed only in the morning. “The power went out at around 4 am or maybe 4:30 am. I had to call in and complain about it. They restored the power at about 7:30 am in the morning. Earlier, there used to be a lot of waterlogging. There used to be a lot of water pooling near parts of the Jayanagar first block main road. However, they’ve filled the potholes and we no longer have this problem,” he said.

A flooded HBR Layout

Though officials and ministers had inspected and taken stock of the situation at HBR Layout last month, the area saw waterlogging in many places. The Chief Minister himself had visited the area and assured that the issues of flooding would be addressed. However, the residents here say that the situation is becoming worse.

“We are seeing flooding even after mild showers. This was not the case previously,” Pradeep, a resident of HBR layout 5th block told News Trail. One of the main reasons for flooding here is a narrow stretch of the Rajakaluve below a railway bridge.

“Officials said that the approval of a tender for widening this stretch is still in progress,” a resident said. Several roads of the area were waterlogged after Thursday’s showers. Though the shoulder drains along some roads were cleaned and desilted, the same has not been uniformly executed all across the area.

KR Market trade hit

Vendors in the KR market had to bear losses due to heavy rain and thunderstorms in the city, as their flowers, fruits and clothes got damaged by the downpour. Anil Gowda sells clothes on the footpath in KR Market. He said his shop was damaged by wind and the heavy rain. He said, “When it started raining, I didn’t shut down my shop. I was hoping that it would eventually stop in 10 minutes. But then the rain grew intense and my shop almost flew off. Some of the clothes were also covered in mud. I usually make Rs 1,000 daily by selling clothes here, but yesterday I barely made Rs 300.”

Arun, a fruit seller, said the rain destroyed all his fruits. He said, “For the last two years, the business is already bad due to the pandemic. But now, when the market is finally open, the rain has ruined our business. The rain destroyed the fruits; while some fell in the muddy water.”

Some shopkeepers complained that it was difficult to open their shops in the morning after the rain because the entire area was flooded and there was mud everywhere. The consumers said they could not do any shopping because of the rains.

Souptik Datta, a resident of Bengaluru, said, “I had gone to buy fruits. But I got stuck in the rain for a long time. The city already has so much traffic congestion; the rain makes it worse.”

BBMP officials said that they would soon make arrangements to prevent flooding in the KR Market area.