BENGALURU: Several parts of the city received heavy rain on Monday night, exposing the city’s fragile infrastructure. The rain that lashed for more than an hour flooded many roads, making it difficult for vehicle users to wade through.
As it rained quite late in the night, there were no traffic jams reported. Underpasses at Anand Rao Circle, Okalipuram, Lingarajapuram and Shivananda Circle were flooded, while Commercial Street and Kamaraj Road had knee-deep water. As a precautionary measure, the traffic police barricaded the underpasses.
Water entered some houses in Kurubarahalli, while flooding was reported in Cooke Town and CK Garden area. Many residents complained of up to 1.5 feet of water inside their homes. The area is flooded as the Railways have blocked a stormwater drain, they said.
Purushottam (90), a retired undersecretary to the state government and a resident of the area, was livid that the authorities had not come to address their problems, though the ground floor of his house was flooded since late afternoon.
Railway ADRM Kusuma Hariprasad said she would look into the issue. Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who is also Bengaluru Development Minister, visited the BBMP control room around 11.30 pm and sought details from BBMP officials on rain damage, and flooding of roads and underpasses. He spoke directly to officials to know the situation and asked them about the immediate measures taken.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a thunderstorm warning for most parts of coastal and south interior Karnataka for the next two days. It also forecast heavy rainfall across the many parts of Karnataka for the next three days, including north interior Karnataka.
The department issued an ‘Orange’ alert for Kodagu district and a ‘Yellow’ alert for Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chamarajanagar, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Mandya, Mysuru and Shivamogga districts.
IMD scientist A Prasad told TNIE that most parts of Karnataka are experiencing rain due to the formation of a trough from the Southeast Arabian Sea to the Kerala coast, covering south interior Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh up to West-central Bay of Bengal.
He added that there is a deficit of 53 per cent rainfall in the state as a whole. The present rainfall will not cover the deficit.
