Water on roads, power cuts at homes: Bengaluru civic mess after overnight rain

Questions are again being raised on the civic horror that returns to the Karnataka capital every time it experiences heavy downpour.

Flooded roads, massive traffic jams and visuals that shocked the country - many commuters in Bengaluru on Tuesday must have had this thought crossing their minds that they had woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Not just those who were out on the roads, even people at their homes - especially people living close to the key Outer Ring Road - faced massive power disruptions. Questions are again being raised on the civic horror that returns to the Karnataka capital every time it experiences heavy downpour.

Visuals of the ORR battling with severe waterlogging have gone viral on social media and are likely to remain in the public memory for some time.

Suvarnalekha Ravi, a resident of Mahadevapura, speaking to HT, shared her experience. “All the disruption that we saw on Tuesday morning was only caused by a spell of overnight rain. The manner in which it took a toll on the daily routine of the city-dwellers is alarming."

"The civic body in the city failed massively in its management. Some simple precautionary measures and a plan in place are the bare minimum that we taxpayers expect from the authorities," she said, expressing her anger.

The techies - for whom 'work-from-office' - is now a mandatory - were stuck in traffic for hours. “It was a nightmare to drive to the office which is not even four km away from my house. It almost took one-and-a-half hours to reach the workplace, out of which one hour was just spent waiting on the road. The waterlogging - on both sides of the road - reminded me of a river flowing," said Suveksha Sharma, a techie who lives in Marathahalli.

Residents of some posh gated societies too faced the impact of flooded roads. Ramakanth Reddy, a businessman who lives in one such society in Bellandur, said: “This is definitely not the life we want to give to our kids. Officials must be held accountable for an absolute mismanagement of the situation yesterday. Good roads and decent civic conditions are primary needs that we expect our governments to focus on. We cannot send our kids to school and be at peace in such a pathetic condition.”

Long power outages too tested the patience of locals. Rajini Yalamanchi, a resident of Marathahalli, seemed exasperated, sharing her experience. “Even in the year 2022, we see overnight power cuts, uninformed. The BESCOM (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company) helplines were unreachable and the power backups were exhausted too. We could not even step out to bring basic groceries as roads were submerged. In the upcoming BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) elections, all these things must be considered before casting our vote," she said.

Visuals of the ORR battling with severe waterlogging have gone viral on social media and are likely to remain in the public memory for some time.