Encroachments to blame

Encroachments to blame
The Times of India

Bangalore: Manholes sans covers, rubble and slush on roads, and to top it all, concrete structures on storm water drains. How can rain-water flow freely at all, ask structural engineers

Not an overnight phenomenon, but like Mumbai, encroachers have in the last two decades set their sights on storm water drains. Predictably, rainwater is forced to flow on the roads, instead of the drains.

At J.P. Nagar, a particular road — infamous because a person was washed away without a trace one rainy night — leads onto Bommanahalli CMC. Engineers of an apartment complex coming up there are apparently trying to cover the entire drain and luring buyers with a ‘no sewage stink’ promise. Should they succeed, Jayanagar, J.P. Nagar and surrounding areas will suffer the backlash during the monsoon. Thankfully, the BCC has written to the government seeking permission to stop the construction.

Overflowing of the Madivala lake is also attributed to illegal encroachments and haphazard development.
Explains BCC commissioner K. Jothiramalingam, “Stormwater drains are not supposed to be covered, desilting work will be severely affected. We started work in April, had we known that the problem was so acute we would probably have started earlier. Rapid urbanisation has ensured that there is no empty land for percolation, no balancing reservoir.’’ Desilting proved to be an Herculean task for the BCC because the engineers underestimated the quantum of silt.

At Magrath Road, starting Monday, the BCC will begin demolishing an entire parking complex adjacent to a shopping mall because it stands on a drain. Says an official, “We decided against widening the drain because the 3-metre drain is now covered with 2 metres of silt. If this is unclogged the drain capacity naturally increases.’’

A study undertaken by BCC engineers last year stated that 118 places in the city are prone to water-logging. Accordingly, regradation and remodelling of primary and secondary drains are apparently under way.
Till then, unquiet and choked flow Bangalore’s drains. With squatters on them.

THERE’S MORE
A high-rise shopping mall at Residency Road, has apparently encroached on the setback area reserved for drains producing occupation certificates. The parking lot adjacent to a shopping mall at Magrath Road is being demolished by the BCC as it stands on storm water drains.

NO ENCROACHMENTS BECAUSE...
118 places in Bangalore are prone to water-logging BCC can evict encroachers if it is government land, or acquire it if it is private land There is bound to be indiscriminate dumping of solid waste Remodelling of drains takes at least two years

Open letter to CM
Dear Mr Dharam Singh

We are the 10,000-plus mute and resigned residents of Domlur Layout, that lies bang on the shortcut between the busy Airport Road and the mythical flyover on Inner Ring Road leading to Koramangala.

It was heartening to read in the papers some months ago that with an iron hand you decided to put a stop to all this nonsense about the studied apathy of the new government to namma Bangalore’s infrastructure from November 15. More than 6 months have gone by since this sabre-rattling. Our locality is yet to feel the effect of this statement.

From time immemorial, we have always had roads in abysmal conditions. In fact, our unabashed dictionary describes a road as a strip of metalled surface connecting potholes. It seems to provide a plane for the overflowing water to run off from one pot hole to another.

If one travels up the 7th cross of Domlur Layout to the very end, one will find a 2-feet wide, 20-feet long and 6-feet deep trench at the very corner thoughtfully left unpaved by its diggers. Last week, when there was a heavy downpour, the front left wheel of a vehicle got stuck in this treacherous ditch.

No one has been able to give us a convincing answer as to why, when we have all paid betterment charges and have continued to faithfully pay our annual municipal taxes under the self assessment scheme, we are denied our basic right.
— By your average Domlur
laid-out denizen