JOIN USAll-night rain throws Monday morning traffic into disarray
All-night rainfall brought the city to a halt on Monday morning as people were stranded on roads for long hours.
The rainfall started around 1.15 am and it continued to pour till 10 am, marooning many arterial roads. Office-goers and students had a tough time reaching their destinations as traffic came to a standstill across the city.
Suresh, of RT Nagar, said he reached his office on MG Road nearly an hour late as roads were flooded with rainwater. “There was knee-deep water near Mehkri Circle even at 9.30 am. Vehicles were not moving at all,” he added.
Areas that received heavy rainfall were Koramangala, Ejipura, Nagasandra, Chikkabanavara, Jayanagar, Seshadripuram, Hebbal, Majestic, Vijayanagar, Shanthinagar, Yeshwantpur, Malleswaram and MG Road. “The rain, along with potholes, made riding difficult. I have been stuck in the traffic for the past one hour,” said Pavan Kumar, of Yeshwantpur, who works in a private company. “I am running out of time to reach office.”
Waterlogging and slow-moving traffic were reported from Queen’s Road, Sadananda Nagar Main Road, ITPL Road, Mysuru Road, Kalasipalyam, VV Puram, Shankarpura, Hebbal Circle, Chalukya Circle, Sony World Junction, Mahadevapura, Hoodi, KR Puram, Marathahalli and Tumakuru Road.
The railway underpass near Sivananda Circle in Seshadripuram was fully flooded and commuting was a nightmare, Muralidhara B M, of Seshadripuram, said: “Two weeks ago, a young motorist was washed away in a drain near Sivananda Circle. After that tragic incident, the intersection continues to flood. The BBMP has not solved the problem.”
The traffic police kept tweeting about vehicular movement, gridlock, potholes and waterlogged roads to help people take alternative routes.
The BBMP said roads had turned bad because of the continuous rainfall. “We have filled almost 50 percent of the potholes in the city, but we couldn’t complete the work on time because of continuous rainfall. Once dry weather resumes, we will start filling the potholes,”
N Manjunath Prasad, Commissioner, BBMP, said.
The BBMP control room received more than 50 complaints till Monday evening, most of them about waterlogging in southern and northern Bengaluru. A tree also crashed in Jayanagar 7th Block, said officials in the BBMP control room.
Sewage-filled rainwater entered Annamma Temple in Majestic and almost reached the sanctum sanctorum. The priest said: “The deity was decorated for the Navarathri festival. On Monday, we were supposed to decorate the deity as Goddess Sharadha. Every time it rains, water enters the temple.”
Kumaran, a devotee, said: “When we came to the temple, the premises was filled with drainage water and it was smelling bad. We ourselves started to remove water from the temple.”
Later in the afternoon, BBMP staff drained the water. “Devotees thronged the temple for Navarathri Darshan. Regular puja was conducted after the cleaning,” he added.