E-Paper
Battered by floods, Bengaluru residents struggle to stay afloat
Residents in various parts of Bengaluru were on Monday ferried out of their homes with the help of boats, earth-movers and tractors as torrential overnight rains left a significant portion of India’s IT capital inundated.
Residents in various parts of Bengaluru were on Monday ferried out of their homes with the help of boats, earth-movers and tractors as torrential overnight rains left a significant portion of India’s IT capital inundated.
In localities like Rainbow Drive layout, Sunny Brooks Layout and parts of Sarjapur Road, the extent of waterlogging was such that tractors and boats were used to ferry students and office-goers in the morning. Throughout the day, social media was flooded with photos and videos of inundated houses as people scrambled to save their valuables.
“At around 11pm we had dinner and were sleeping when the water rushed in. That’s when we took our children and sat on top (elevation),” said a sanitation worker (pourakarmika) with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBPM, the city’s civic body). “Then the rain started again and we had to sleep on the terrace.” Another sanitation worker, Nagappa, said after his house was filled with water, people came to rescue him and his children.
The entire Munekulalu slum in eastern suburb of Marathahalli, where most of sanitation workers employed by BBMP live in shanties, was submerged, destroying houses.
In Sunny Brooks, an upmarket layout in Sarjapura Road, just off the outer ring road, tractors were deployed to bring residents out of their homes.
“The rain started at 8pm last (Sunday) night and was on till 5am today (Monday) and the ground floor is covered by water,” said a man who left his flat in a multi-storied apartment, along with his wife and a child, with the help of a rescue team. “We are on the second floor, not sure what will happen if it rains again today...so we decided to evacuate and move out from here to a relative’s place.”
Videos of submerged cars and houses were played on loop by television news channels with reporters getting on top of tractors to get better footage of the locality. “Each time it is the same problem. Earlier there was a park, they took out the park and built a flyover and since then, this has been the problem,” said a resident of Domlur, near Indiranagar. “We have told this to the MLA, corporators and others, but no action has been taken.”
As several areas on the Outer Ring Road (ORR), which houses some of the IT companies, were affected by the overnight rain and flooding, some firms were forced to ask their employees to work from home. Most parts of the ORR resembled lakes, affecting the movement of vehicular traffic.
“I was on my way to office in knee-deep water. My vehicle stopped mid-way as water entered the engine parts. Now I’m stuck here, not sure what to do and where to reach,” said a man in his mid-thirties.
Many residents took to Twitter to narrate ordeals, with a short video showing air passengers wading through ankle-deep water in what appeared to be the Bengaluru airport’s entrance.
“This is extreme situation and it is man-made. Encroachment of Raj Kaluve and poor management of Storm Water Drains due to connivance or callous attitude of authorities. Completely avoidable (sic),” RK Mishra, an urban expert, posted on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the civic body said the total loss due to the floods was yet to be assessed.
“Loss estimation is being undertaken. Unfortunately, the losses experienced by people such as water entering their houses and destroying their valuables are not calculated,” said Tushar Girinath, chief commissioner of BBMP. “We calculate losses to civic infrastructure, such as road surface and lining. Rescue operation is still on and an overall loss assessment will be completed after that.”
