Rain-drain: BCC begins its clean-up act

Rain-drain: BCC begins its clean-up act
The TImes of India

Bangalore: It’s rain and drain time again. And civic agencies say ‘clean Bangalore’ work is in full swing. By accounts of citizens themselves, the clean-up act is finally happening.

Covering drains for instance, which was the causal factor for problems aplenty, two months ago, is apparently under control.

Unclogging and clearing up choked drains are also being done consistently, say BCC officials. For instance, workers are dredging up the silt and slush as part of efforts to clear the drains near Ulsoor Lake. Forget the helldefying stink.

Near Sampige theatre, 10-footdeep pits have been dug up to clear pipes that have been blocked. Thankfully work happens in the night.
Says BCC Technical adviser (infrastructure) R. Jaiprasad: “The quantum of rain in the last two weeks has not been more than five inches which is not of high intensity. We have desilted almost all the drains. Clearing up the main valleys where the secondary and primary drains finally meet, is a laborious job and will take months.’’

In Shantinagar for instance, the uphill task BCC faced was — drains of width 3.3 mts were restricted to 1.4mts. On Church Street, as people in the BCC engineering department explain, they were able to desilt only a fourth of what actually needs to be done. This was because unclogging the entire length and breadth of secondary drains would take aeons and priority was given to immediate respite and preventing flooding in the aftermath of heavy rain. Yet another task, covering secondary drains is in full swing at areas like Gandhinagar, Hanumanthanagar, J.P. Nagar, Malleswaram.

But potholes still seem to plague the citizens. For two weeks now, the weather has been swinging between pleasant to spurts of intermittent rain to heavy rain enough to show up nasty potholes.

The BCC is quick to assert that “thousands of potholes are being filled up on an everyday basis in different zones.’’

THEY NEED ATTENTION
LOW-LYING AREAS
Shantinagar, parts of Koramangala, Ejipura, Prakashnagar, Dommasandra, Jogupalya, Sagaipura, Mahalakshmi Layout, Vyalikaval, Domlur, B.T.M. Layout, among others

PROBLEM AGENTS
The 129.4 kms of secondary drains that were choked beyond capacity Primary drains, which are about 93.56 kms in length, in turn could not take the load let out by secondary drains, spewing onto major valleys in the city.