Bengaluru residents use tractors to get into flooded layout

Residents of Rainbow Drive, Sarjapur Road, rented two tractors to ferry school-going students and office-goers on Thursday.

Reason? All roads leading to this gated community in southeastern Bengaluru are filled with waist-deep water. The torrential rainfall on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday filled the 300-metre stretch with at least three-feet of water.

No resident has been able to take their personal vehicles out for the last three days. Senior citizens are forced to stay indoors till the flood recedes.

The gated community came up about 25 years ago and has nearly 300 houses.

Although the neighbourhood did not receive heavy rains on Thursday, water is still flowing into Rainbow Drive because two lakes — Halanayakanahalli and Junnnasandra — are overflowing. Residents had to use ingenious methods to get on with their daily lives.

“We have hired two tractors from 6 am to 10 pm. None of us could walk on the road as the 300-metre stretch looks like a river. At least 50 houses are affected. Residents are not able to use the bathroom or restroom as water is gushing out from there. This has been the case for the last 36 hours,” said K P Singh, a resident.

Few videos showed a tractor with schoolchildren and residents driving into the flooded driveway of the gated community.

Residents block road

Angry over the state of affairs, residents blocked the busy road, disrupting traffic and demanded that the authorities pay attention to their problems.

The BBMP sent workers as well as home guards who have been pumping out water for the last two days.

Residents, however, have little hope that the situation will improve unless a new drain is built to drain the rainwater naturally.