NICE shifts blame on Palike for flooding

'The civic agency dumped soil in the drain to facilitate movement of excavators'

Slamming the Palike for “passing the buck,” NICE officials said on condition of anonymity that the BBMP officials were hiding the facts to stave off criticism. They rebuked the allegation that the coffer dam built on stormwater drain for the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure corridor project had been causing the frequent flooding.

“The BBMP officials are misleading the government by stating that NICE is responsible for the flooding, whereas the fact is that the Palike has constructed more than 100 pillars exactly on the drain for its infrastructure project from West of Chord Road linking Mysore Road,” said a source in the NICE.

The Palike dumped loads of soil in the drain to facilitate movement of heavy machinery for construction of pillars, the source added.

The NICE officials said the technical committees of the BBMP and the BWSSB had warned the Palike authorities not to go ahead with the flyover project as it would create problems in future, but nobody paid heed to it. The NICE authorities also questioned the methodology on the basis of which the Palike arrived at the loss of Rs 15 crore to the state exchequer. Denouncing the attempt to render NICE a scapegoat, the company authorities sought to know the whereabouts of the silt removed from the stormwater drain at a cost of Rs 60 crore.

BBMP clears its mess
Meanwhile, the Palike authorities were seen removing silt from the stormwater drain, dumped to allow movement of excavators for the construction flyover columns.
The de-silting of the drain in the downstream has also been taken up.