The night-long thundershower on Tuesday was indeed a test for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). A few days ago, the Palike had declared its preparedness to tackle the monsoon woes ahead.
Bracing for a normal monsoon, BBMP was caught off guard with the night-long rain ranging from heavy to violent in some of the Central Business District (CBD) areas, resulting in the death of a pedestrian.
In less than a few hours after the showers began to lash the city, several major roads and underpasses were flooded leaving commuters stranded for hours.
According to sources, some localities were waterlogged till morning reflecting poorly
on the civic body’s desilting work.
Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun, who had been in touch with all zones all through the night, went around the city assessing the damage.
The mayor could not hold on any longer when she spotted waterlogged stretches near the Agara underpass and Sankey Road. She came down heavily on the engineers over their cavalier attitude and
poor management of the situation.
“At some locations, the openings of shoulder drains were small and it took quite some time to dewater the areas. But in these cases, it was sheer negligence of the engineers. I have warned them of stringent action if they continue to be callous,” Gangambike Mallikarjun told DH.
While a huge quantity of silt had deposited at the underpass on the Airport Road, the underpass near Agara was not cleaned properly, according to officials.
The Okalipuram stretch, where the work on the eight-lane corridor is in full swing, witnessed waterlogging till morning.
“As the work is still under progress, we could not connect the drains properly at the site, leading to waterlogging. However, we have deployed special teams equipped with powerful pumps to dewater the area and make it ready for motorists,” a senior BBMP official said.
B’luru Rural suffers
Though a few areas in Bengaluru Metropolitan Area Zone (BMAZ) of Bescom witnessed prolonged power cuts up until midnight, the worst affected areas were under the Bengaluru Rural Area Zone (BRAZ).
According to the data put out by Bescom engineers, in Bengaluru Rural, as many as 73 electric poles and at least eight transformers were damaged in the thundershower. In Bengaluru, meanwhile, only nine poles were damaged as two transformers failed.
“Some of the localities such as Peenya, HSR Layout, Jalahalli, Whitefield, Kaggalipura and Lingarajapuram in the city limits were severely affected apart from Chandapura, Hoskote, Magadi, Tumakuru and Ramanagara, with both intermittent and prolonged power cuts as poles were broken and branches fell on the transmission lines,” a senior Bescom engineer revealed.