Knee-deep water around airport

Knee-deep water around airport
Golf Club Turns Swimming Pool,Thanks To Sunday’s Downpour
The Times of India

Bangalore: Parts of the city were still inundated on Monday morning, hours after Sunday’s rain. All areas around HAL Airport had to grapple with knee-deep water and the accompanying stench.

Airport area recorded a rainfall of 74.3 mm.

Says a resident of a layout near Airport Road: “From my house I can see the airport, it looked like the water was going to reach the runway as well. Vehicles just couldn’t be used in the morning.’’

Early on Monday, BCC workers demolished a section of the airport compound wall, because as engineers explained, the wall stood on a secondary drain, obstructing flow of rain water.

Residents complained that they had to wade through kneedeep water on Wind Tunnel Road and parts of Indiranagar-Koramangala Ring Road. No one dared get their vehicles out, mechanics attended to two-wheelers and smaller cars which had been stuck in the rain. The Karnataka Golf Club resembled a huge swimming pool, and the stagnant water was pumped out by noon. Kalappa Layout was in kneedeep water.

The reason areas near the airport went under, say BCC authorities, was large-scale dumping of thermocol, e-waste and other heavy non-recyclable waste. Says P K Srihari, BCC engineer-in-chief: “On Sunday alone, we received more than 100 complaints of which around 50 were from Indiranagar and Domlur, where drains were getting blocked despite unclogging them.’’

A part of Bull Temple Road caved in near Ramakrishna ashram due to the rain, leaving a dangerous pit. Traffic had to be diverted to a circuitous route from Uma theatre.

On some roads, rain water was flowing in torrents, this time not due to rain or clogged drains. Shopkeepers who had shops in basements were manually lifting water by the buckets and throwing it on to streets in Cox Town, Malleswaram, Shivajinagar, Majestic, Gandhinagar and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, a middle-aged man who was apparently in an inebriated condition, died due to Sunday night’s downpour at Subramanyapura. His identity has not yet been ascertained. With this, the total number of rain-related deaths has touched five.