The rain God punished Bengaluru on Friday for killing off its beautiful lakes and gardens and raising brick-and-steel monsters in their place.
The plight of the information technology capital after just two days of heavy rain on Thursday and Friday should serve as another reminder to the authorities that unplanned urbanisation results in unimaginable tragedy.
However, Bengaluru was not alone to suffer as Mumbai witnessed massive traffic snarls on Friday due to waterlogging on roads. Even though this year Mumbai managed to escape the massive waterlogging that it usually faces each year during Monsoon, traffic movement on key stretches like the Western Express in Andheri remained slow and there were massive tailbacks.
In Bengaluru, people netted a rich haul of fish at several places as waist-deep water gushed down city roads. In some places, the water even flooded ground floors of buildings, forcing authorities to bring in boats to rescue hundreds of stranded people.
The problem is specifically attributed to the massive encroachment of the raja kaluve or storm water drain network. Several studies have shown that nearly 95 per cent of the city’s lakes and drain linkages have been encroached over the years.
As a result of this, incessant overnight rain turned Bengaluru’s traffic into a horror story and fallen trees added to the problem in many areas.
As it is, Bengaluru was struggling with a nightmarish traffic problem caused by Government buses going off the roads due to a strike and massive protests on the river-water sharing issue on Thursday. And then the rain set in.
It was a dreadful night for some of the low-lying areas on the outskirts of the Electronic City where hundreds of people were stranded and the fire department had to press boats into service to rescue them. Some of the areas were completely cut off from the city and people were seen wading through to escape to safer places.
In the Kodichikkanahalli and Bilekahalli areas, near the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, fire and emergency service personnel had to rescue people on ferries as they were stuck due to a breach in the lake that flooded the neighbourhood, forcing the ground floor residents to move to the upper floors. The Fire and Emergency Service personnel were pressed into service on Friday morning to rescue the stranded people.
Flooding, overflowing of drains and sewage, uprooting of trees and wall collapses were reported from across the city. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) control rooms were inundated by distress calls from citizens.
The worst affected was Bommanahalli zone as the incessant rains and lake breach inundated all major arterial roads and in many areas there was three feet of water. Old Madras Road, Hosur Road, Outer Ring Road, Bannerghatta Road and Ballari Road faced massive traffic jams and witnessed as crucial junctions on these roads were waterlogged.
The city’s Bellandur lake also saw the froth floating on it spilling onto the roads, as it happens whenever there are heavy rains, causing inconvenience to commuters. Speaking to reporters, Home Minister G Parameshwara said that he has instructed traffic officials to be on the field to ease the traffic woes.
Agreeing that lack of proper infrastructure was also adding to the problem, he said the Government was taking steps in this regard.
“I have spoken to Corporation Commissioner in the morning; he has deployed his staff at places. They are working to pump out water from clogged areas wherever possible.”
The Commissioner, along with his officials, is also visiting the affected areas to oversee the work, he added.
According to the weather department Bengaluru has recorded 135 mm of rainfall in the last four days, 30 mm more than its monthly rainfall in July. 41 mm of that rainfall came down in the last 24 hours.
R Hitendra, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), said that the incessant rains and inundation of crucial arterial roads had put the traffic in the city out of gear. “We, along with Fire and Emergency Services, have been trying to remove water from these inundated roads clearing them for traffic. But even after clearing water, we observe that the waterlogging has created large potholes and bad road stretches which have drastically brought down the traffic speeds on the city’s roads in the last one week,” he said.