Layouts flooded, lakes overflow as overnight showers pound Bengaluru

An unrelenting rainfall of 104 mm, which lashed the city on Tuesday night brought several areas under knee-deep water, triggering a series of woes to citizens from flooding of over 1,000 homes to lack of access to clean drinking water.

As almost all the 201 lakes were overflowing and stormwater drains were inadequate to carry the extra load of rainwater, a large number of roads turned into rivulets, bringing traffic to a halt.

According to officials, water had entered the houses of 270 residents in Sai Layout, 14 residents in Pai Layout and 12 residents in Nagappa Reddy Layout, all in Horamavu. The situation was no different in HBR Layout where houses of close to 250 residents were flooded. The other worst-hit areas were Horamavu Main Road, CV Raman Nagar, Panathur, Carmelaram, Belathur, Gunjur etc.

Traffic in the city was also hit badly, forcing commuters to spend hours on the road as they struggled to navigate through the slow-moving traffic due to water-logging, persistent rains and bad roads.

Parts of Outer Ring Road between Agara and KR Puram, a stretch near Haralur leading to Sarjapur Road, near Trinity Circle on MG Road, Doddakannelli, etc were chock-a-block with vehicles.

‘Horrible situation’

K C Singh, a resident of Rainbow Drive on Sarjapur Road, deployed a tractor to pick residents from the layout entrance to their homes as the layout was flooded. “It’s not raining now, but we are still struggling to drain out the water,” he said on Wednesday evening. “We had to use a tractor as the water was knee deep. The tractor was also used to pick up students who were dropped off by their school buses at the entrance. The situation is horrible. We do not know what to do,” Singh said.

Some residents, residing in areas that always experience flood-like situations, had carried extra shorts with them to ensure their clothes did not get wet while walking on the inundated roads.

Srinath, a resident of Prerana Tranquil apartment on Horamavu Main Road, said he could not go to work as the apartment’s basement was flooded with water. “When the apartment flooded in May, two cars were completely damaged. This time we ensured the cars were taken out as water started gushing in. We do not have access to clean water now,” he said.

BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath told reporters the residents of Sai Layout and the neighbouring layouts in Horamavu might continue to face the problem of floods till the next monsoon. “We have just issued the work order to widen the railway vent. The work will be taken up by September. The situation will improve by next year,” he said.

The BBMP, he said, will continue to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 every time a house gets flooded. “We have instructed engineers to remove encroachments before remodelling the drains. We are also de-silting the major drains on a daily basis,” he said.

A senior BBMP official said the stormwater drains and the lakes can handle only up to 75 mm of rainfall. “Bengaluru recorded more than 100 mm of rainfall. Our drains are inadequate to handle such volume of water. What needs to be done is to avoid the run-off by installing rainwater harvesting measures both on private and public buildings,” he said.