Its raining woes on Church Street

PEOPLESPEAK ON CHURCH STREET
It’s raining woes here. While everybody has a horror story to tell, here are a few letters The Times of India received.

Between the devil and deep drain

It is indeed a pathetic state of affairs when Church Street gets flooded year after year, shower after shower. And nothing seems to be done about it. Tuesday was a nightmare for nearly every office-goer. Church Street was like a flooded river — cars were almost floating around. Bikes could not be taken out of the basement where they were parked. Bikes that started inside the basement promptly stopped and refused to start again. I had to struggle to bring my bike back inside the basement while my handbag floated away — a choice between handbag and bike! The only way to get out was to wade in kneedeep water, dodging potholes and loose electric wires. You had a choice ‘death by drowning’ or ‘death by electrocution’!

Finally, after somehow hanging on for dear life, clutching whatever I could to reach the corner of Church Street where autorickshaws were parked, I found that in spite of offering them ‘double meter’ fare, nothing on earth would make them budge.

I met the same plight on M.G. Road, where auto drivers refused to take me to my destination or even halfway. Nowadays, you have to ask these drivers ‘Where would you like to go?’. In all this chaos, not one policeman was in sight; on M.G. Road, they magically disappear in times of trouble!

After wading through flooded roads amidst thunder, lightning and rain, I finally managed to get an autorickshaw to take me to my destination for double charge — which I most enthusiastically agreed to only to meet more trouble on the way. Going down one road, finding it flooded and then going back another way finding that flooded as well. It was a miracle to finally reach home — totally wet, exhausted and frustrated that I’m in for the same treat the next time it rains! — Karen D., Bangalore

Draining resources

When an Indian can’t walk safely on the pavement during rain, can one complain about him leaving for another country? In Bangalore, as roads are widened at the expense of pavement area, the width of drains lying below pavements (where a pavement or a semblance of it exists) drastically reduces, thereby reducing their capacity. In some areas, drains are completely sealed off by large corporates who don’t want to see culverts near their offices. Also, vested interests pay corporators to retar roads in front of their houses/ offices so that rainwater doesn’t flow into stormwater drains on their road, thus spoiling the road surface camber. What can be done is to ensure that a rain-water harvesting mechanism is implemented in stormwater drains, thereby recharging the water table as the water flows through the drain. — Sunil Pichamuthu

Hell hath no fury

I am a resident of Ranka Colony. On May 27, I happened to be at home and witnessed the rain fury. To my surprise, the road became a river and the entire area was converted to a lake by the floods. Cars were being pushed back by the force of the water. Cars were submerged up to the engine. Motorbikes were completely immersed. This has been occurring every year, yet no concrete plan has been envisaged. — Balaji Thiagarajan

Some corporate heads reacted to the mess Bangalore finds itself in.



Capt G.R. Gopinath, managing director, Air Deccan:

Bangalore is a beautiful city; one of the pearls of India. But if we don’t take care of it well, things may be different soon. Infrastructure, specially during monsoon, is in tatters and the BCC could do better. In fact, measures have to be undertaken on a warfooting to make sure that roads do not flood soon after a spell of rainfall. Recently, I was stuck on Airport Road for hours. It was very disappointing.

Subroto Bagchi, COO, MindTree:

I was meeting Thomas Friedman of The New York Times on Tuesday. Four of the six invitees landed late for the meeting because of the situation in Bangalore. It’s strange. Citizens here can compete with the best in the US, Europe and China, but they cannot compete with their own city and city fathers!”