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With rain forecast, Storm Water Drain works yet to be completed

Last Updated 07 April 2018, 14:23 IST

With summer rain round the corner and monsoon in a couple of months, residents of the areas prone to flooding are not spared of worry over waterlogging this time either.

Although the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has speeded up desilting and remodelling of stormwater drains (SWDs), it has been able to complete the construction work of the SWDs for a stretch of only 117.9 km out of 842 km. However, it has missed the February deadline to complete 334 km of work.

But the pace of the work has improved compared to what it was in 2017. Important works such as constructing retaining wall, linking shoulder drain to the SWDs or even widening the drains have accelerated this year. Out of 408 such works, only 20 of them were complete until May 2017.

In a span of one year, by April 2018, 102 such works have been completed. Most of these were pending for many years. While areas surrounding Vrishabhavathi valley and Yeshwantpur have seen certain progress in the work, areas adjoining Koramangala and Challagatta valley and also Hebbal have seen the least number of completed works.

This has left the residents living near the areas to ponder whether the work would be completed within the stipulated time or not.

"In Koramangala, the BBMP along with citizen groups has planned both temporary and permanent solutions to solve the issue. The temporary solution involves the construction of a retaining wall of 40 m near Maharaja signal bridge and also the construction of RCC box drain. This is expected to be completed by June, but we do not know how it will pan out," said Raghu Rajagopal, a resident of Koramangala 4th block who is closely involved with the work.

The work on a permanent solution is yet to start," said Rajagopal added.

Koramangala, being one of the most affected areas during flash floods of 2017, is being worked on with the help of STUP consultants - a private agency which provides expert solutions to these issues.

Meanwhile, in Laggere, where five people had lost their lives due to an overflow of water, only desilting work is completed and the work of increasing the height of retention wall is still going on.

Area corporator, Manjula Narayanswamy has filed a complaint with the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) stating that BBMP engineers were looting money and have allotted Rs 30 lakh for some SWD work without specifying it. "Officers play politics here and the people are bound to face the same problem during this rainy season also," she said.

The SWD work near Shantinagar, where many houses and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) office were flooded, is also moving at a snail pace.

Bettegowda, chief engineer, SWD, BBMP hopes to complete the work in June or July.

"We have covered most of the vulnerable areas and the works are in final stages. We have given a deadline of another one and a half months," he said.

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(Published 04 April 2018, 19:04 IST)

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