After wet week, city picks up its pieces

After wet week, city picks up its pieces
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The city is gradually recovering from a week of wet whipping that brought life to a standstill. On Sunday, civic teams were busy restoring snapped power lines and clearing fallen trees.

The Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) continued to remove fallen trees and branches. On Sunday, over 85 trees and some branches in Jayanagar and JP Nagar areas were cleared. BCC sources said the civic body will continue clearing operations on Monday also.

A HAL fire force truck stationed on Cubbon Road in the evening helped clear fallen trees outside its corporate office. Firemen with power saws were seen cutting branches of a tree that had fallen onto the road from inside the compound.

On Sunday morning, an autorickshaw driver was injured after a huge tree fell and crushed his vehicle near Navarang theatre.

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) too had its share of work cut out and has been working round-the-clock to restore power in many parts of the city. In Jayanagar V Block, power was yet to be fully restored, as supply has been intermittent ever since the rains began five days ago.

‘‘There is no regular supply for the past five days. Whenever we call up BESCOM or BCC officials, there is no response. Nearly 10 trees have fallen in our locality. Why can’t they temporarily hire private contractors to clear the uprooted trees when the damage is too much for them to cope with? No power in our house also means we cannot pump water from the sumps to the tank,’’ Mukund, a resident of Jayanagar V Block complained.

Meanwhile, the city police are yet to identify the two bodies, which were discovered in drains in Chamarajpet and KR Puram on Saturday. In Chamarajpet, the body of a man aged about 35 years was found in a drain near Rudrappa Garden on Pipeline Road. Police suspect the victim was washed away in the heavy rain.

In the other incident, KR Puram police suspect that a 50-year-old man, who was found dead in a drain, to be an electrician. They found a tester and holder in his pocket.