JOIN USBaiyappanahalli Metro station flooded
The first signs of what the coming monsoon rains may do to the metro stations have surfaced.
With the monsoon approaching soon, it is likely that heavy rains would flood the stations if there are many leaking points. Precautions should be taken over water flooding the platforms and railway tracks.
During heavy on Friday evening, the concourse of the Baiyappanahalli station was flooded with water making it difficult for passengers to enter and exit the station.
The area around the ticket counters and areas where people get on to and get down from the platforms were also flooded with ankle-deep water. Empty buckets were also kept under the roof points where it was leaking.
The metal detectors and security machines were down and the security guards did not for some time do the standard checking of passengers entering the station. The metro staff were busy trying to draw the water away using sticks attached with coarse cloth.
BMRCL spokesperson U A Vasanth Rao told Deccan Herald that some roof-level sheets had expanded in the heat and the water was flowing from the expanded sheets into pipes discharging the water downwards to the concourse where all the different pathways meet.
Rao said the metro officials were already on the job to find out what was causing the leak. He said they would fix the problem by night and that things should be all right.
But there was no indication from him about what the metro would do during the monsoon season. Water-logging would be heavy and it is not clear how the water would be drained out.
The metro officials were confident of tackling the monsoon as they had already experienced rains in the past few years when the construction of the metro was underway.