Record overnight rain pours misery over Bengaluru

Residents and motorists woke up to misery on Monday morning after heavy overnight rain on Sunday lashed many areas of Bengaluru.

Bengaluru South was among the worst affected areas with knee-deep water flowing on Bannerghatta Road at Gottigere, Hulimavu and Arakere Layouts.

As many as 150 houses and villas at Himagiri Meadows of the 350 homes were completely inundated as rainwater has gushed into the basement and into some houses in Gottigere.

Four lakes — Dorekere, Gubbalala, Vasanthpura and Doddakallasandra — also breached, causing waterlogging in nearby areas.

The residents narrated their plight about how they were helplessly looking at cars hit one another in the middle of the night due to strong water currents.

Deepika Pandit, a resident of Bannerghatta Road said, “It was 2.30 am in the night and our beds were floating. The basement and the ground floor were completely inundated.” She also said this was the second time in a year that they experienced flooding. A compound also collapsed in the locality, but no one was hurt.

Houses were also flooded at MLA Layout, Kalena Agrahara and Hulimavu on Bannerghatta Road. The residents blamed this for the breach in a stormwater drain (SWD) nearby.

The family of Shankar Narayan, a resident in Hulimavu near Maruthi Dental College had to stay up the whole night. They were busy in salvaging their valuables and ensuring they were not destroyed by the rising water level. “A stormwater drain is overflowing leading to this situation. My neighbours are also going through the same ordeal,” said Narayan.

Some residents at Himagiri Meadows also blamed the waterlogging on the overflowing Hulimavu Lake. BBMP officials, however, denied it.

“The flooding is because of the overflowing SWD and not the lake. Some even complained about the breach of Gottigere Lake, but it is a false alarm,” said a BBMP official of Bommanahalli zone.

But three lakes upstream of Hulimavu are said to have overflowed.

Meanwhile, Gottigere corporator Lalitha said that though they had lodged many complaints with the SWD department of the BBMP regarding de-silting work, there has been no response.

When asked about the pending de-silting work, BBMP Mayor R Sampath Raj said, “We have completed work on about 489 km of SWDs. If you notice, the areas that were affected last year have not been affected this year. The city received rain for 11 hours. We have taken precautionary measures by deploying more personnel to reach out to residents since more rain is forecast for this week.”

Elsewhere, around 200 homes were inundated in Sapthagiri Layout, Kaikondrahalli, Sarjapur Road, Vijaya Bank Main Road in Krishnarajapuram, JP Nagar 9th Phase at Avalahalli, MLA Layout in Kalena Agrahara, Dasarahalli, outer ring road in Doddanekundi, and Mysuru Road near Jnanabharathi. A landslide was also reported at Nagarbhavi. Waterlogging was also reported in some apartments in Begur and Kodichikkanahalli.

Snakes enter houses: With many homes flooded, some residents had to contend with snakes entering their houses. “We saw some snakes floating in our home and this is one of the most bizarre things that have happened,” said Narayan, who has been living in Hulimavu for more than 12 years.