Choked drains flood Dasarahalli, Yelahanka after night-long rain

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A woman clears out floodwater from her house in in Rukmini Nagar, T Dasarahalli, on Tuesday. DH PHOTO/B H SHIVAKUMAR

Many localities in Dasarahalli and Yelahanka were inundated in Monday night’s heavy rains due to clogging of stormwater drains.

The control rooms at both Dasarahalli and the BBMPhead office received many distressed calls with complaints of compound wall collapse, falling of tree branches and flooding.

BBMP control room officials disclosed to DH that water overflowed onto the streets of Belmar Layout, Gundappa Layout, HMT Layout in Chokksandra ward and Rukmini Nagar in T Dasarahalli, where people accused civic authorities of neglecting the clogged drains that caused waterlogging during the rainy season every year.

The four-foot-high water that flooded the streets entered the basement parking areas and sumps. “Encroachment of the Nelagedaranahalli stormwater parallel to Tumakuru Road is causing the flooding and clogging of the drains here,” local resident BS Mahesh said. Around ten feet of the 33-foot-long stormwater canal has been encroached at one stretch, where water from HMT Layout, Dasarahalli Lake and Ramaiah Layout flows in. “The pressure created due to the encroachment results in water overflowing to the surrounding areas. This becomes even worse when drains are choked with silt and garbage,” Mahesh said.

MLA R Manjunath and local Corporator Umadevi Nagaraj inspected the area and assured to resolve the problem. So far nothing has been done, Mahesh added. Those residing on ground floors have built brick walls of up to four feet height to stave off the overflowing rainwater, even as the IMD predicted more rains in the coming days.

Monday night’s downpour damaged bikes, cars, and furniture in several homes. Residents said the BBMP had released funds to people distressed by the flooding, but the process was riddled with lapses. Data provided by meteorologists at the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) revealed that the city received two centimetres of rain, with Doddabommasandra in Yelahanka receiving 91 mm. Chokkasandra, Bagalagunte, Nandini Layout, HMT Layout and Yeshwantpur Industrial Area in the Dasarahalli zone witnessed heavy rainfall of over 150 mm.

Downpour also lashed Jakkur and Yelahanka areas. Barring a few areas in Bengaluru South and RR Nagar, all parts of the city received moderate rainfall on Monday night. “The flooded houses are a part of a slum building next to the drains,” said Narasimha Murthy, Joint Commissioner, T Dasarahalli, BBMP. “Officials have been desilting the drains. Drainage work has also been carried out in the last six months. Once the work is done, we’ll build a retaining wall to prevent the overflow of water.”