Ulsoor ‘flood’ wake-up call for Bangalore City

Ulsoor ‘flood’ wake-up call for Bangalore City
Deccan Herald

A makeshift barrier between the road and the lake will not be enough to protect the area from the fury of the monsoon.

The wall that collapsed on Tuesday near the Madras Engineers Group (MEG) on Old Madras Road could be a wake-up call for authorities in Bangalore.

Water from Ulsoor Lake broke the protective barrier and flooded the road bringing traffic to a halt. When showers of Tuesday’s nature, which were not hugely destructive, unleash such damage, the question arises on the safety of taking such roads which are closer to water bodies and protected by shaky walls and barriers.

“The wall is broken in parts and there’s an urgent need to redo it. It was constructed about two decades ago. Now, the situation is so bad that whenever there is a heavy downpour in the area, parts of the neighbourhood get inundated. Another heavy spate of showers could prove costly for the area,” said corporator M Saravana.

The BMP is rebuilding the almost 15-metre stretch of the wall which collapsed. But to ease the threat a comprehensive and focused drive to shield the entire Ulsoor area from potential floods is needed, according to Mr Saravana.

“The wall is quite old. Some 15 years ago, there was another incident of a wall breaking near the MEG gate, flooding the neighbourhood with drainage,” he said and added that this time around, prompt action from the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) helped in sparing the surrounding areas from the gushing waters.

At peak hours, the narrow road has heavy traffic which winds down from Trinity Circle, mostly towards Cox Town and Fraser Town. A makeshift barrier between the road and the lake is certainly not what the area needs now. BMP Technical Advisor Mr Jaiprasad, however, assured that the incident was minor and the situation was under control. “This is not a regular occurrence on this road. You have to take the wall’s age into consideration as well.

“As one side of the lake had an embankment, the excess water broke through the wall on the other side and gushed on to the road,” said Jaiprasad.

He said the rebuilt stretch of the wall would be up in a week. “Possibilities of such incidents increase when the walls are built almost vertically, when ideally they should have a slight slope,” he said.

A damage control drive, incorporating measures to check potential threats, could blunt the rain fury in the coming days. For the moment however, the authorities are still coping with the Tuesday aftermath.