Uprooting 86 trees, rendering several areas without power and leaving roads galore beyond repair, Cyclone Nilam and the incessant rains in its wake left most Bangaloreans stranded on Rajyotsava Day.
Over 81.mm rain fell in two days, 7.9 mm on Thursday alone, severely exposed the city’s grossly inadequate infrastructure, yet again.
Trees came crashing down in HAL Area, Banashankari, Shanthi Nagar, Malleswaram, BTM Layout, HBR Layout, Indira Nagar, Hampinagar near Dollars Colony, Ramamurthy Nagar, New Tippasandra, Sanjaynagar, Jayamahal, RPC Layout, Nagawara, Jayanagar, Lingarajapuram, Frazer Town, Hebbal, Koramangala and CMH Road.
The tree-falls triggered a boundary wall collapse in BTM Layout, while a car was damaged at CMH Road. On busy roads, these immediately led to traffic jams. Water gushed into houses in Devarachikkanahalli.
The rain made a mess of the uncleared garbage dumped randomly in Vivek Nagar, Vannarpet, EWS Quarters, Passport Office, Shivajinagar, Ulsoor, Sultanpalya, Ilyas Nagar, Chamarajpet, Adugodi, Chikpet, KR Market and surrounding areas. A remark by Rajeshwara Rao, a resident of Viveknagar, on garbage left unattended for a week, summed up the widespread feeling of helpnessness and disgust: “I was shocked to see worms in the stinking garbage heap. I called the BBMP office several times, but there was no response. The rains made it utterly messy.”
A record 3,753 complaints of power disruption kept BESCOM busy throughout. The disruption list was the highest in a decade. The scene might be the same on Friday too, as the Meteorology Department has predicted cloudy weather with intermittent heavy rains.
Although the holiday spared the traffic police too many hassles on Thursday, the cops fear a repeat of the Wednesday chaos on the morrow. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic, East, said, “All traffic policemen will be on duty on Friday from morning to night in view of the unforseen situation.
Otherwise, they normally work in two shifts.”Most residents on the City’s newly-added BBMP areas, who ventured out, had to endure slush on untarred roads. The slippery, pot-holed, garbage-ridden roads were mostly unmotorable and impossible to walk on. In inner City, on stretches such as the one from Mysore road flyover till Nayandahalli signa,l for instance, commuters had a rough ride even on Thursday.
