A tyre caused Koramangala floods!

A tyre caused Koramangala floods!
BCC Cleans Up Drain, Finds Tractor Tyre Blocking Water Flow
The Times of India

Bangalore: Did you know what caused the floods in Koramangala last week? A tractor tyre!

Know why? Because it blocked the drain.

Friday saw the mother of all clean-up operations. The BCC team of workers, engineers and commissioner K Jothiramalingam gathered at the drain that flows near NAL.

Heave-ho, and the workers began the Herculean task of excavating the choked drain. Finally, their ‘tyreless’ efforts paid off. They heaved a huge tractor tyre that had been lying right at the mouth of the storm water drain at Challaghatta valley, blocking all discharge of flood water.

The Challaghatta valley — home to many secondary drains of Koramangala, Shantinagar, Airport Road — has been the cause of much heartburn to the BCC for its over-clogged, chock-ablock status. In its natural topographical course, it later merges with the Koramangala valley. The BCC recently started desilting it at a whopping Rs 71.55 crore, of which the first phase of work is under way.

Explains BCC technical adviser R Jaiprasad who oversaw the cleanup, “This is a narrow entrance. Such a huge obstruction had prevented rainwater from flowing further. With such a crucial point blocked, areas like Koramangala and Airport Road got inundated.’’

Not just tyre, innumerable OFCs and other debris too were found among the floating material that blocked the flood discharge. The agency in charge of desilting drains, Stup Consultants, had its own share of complaints in the clean-up operations as it found mattresses, commodes, furniture dumped in drains.

An exasperated Jaiprasad adds: “How can the BCC work if strangled like this? There are 240 km of storm water drains. Can we appoint people to watch the place round the clock? Citizens seem to have no civic sense if they can dump something like this in a drain.’’

To drive some civic sense among citizens, the BCC recently slapped a notice on a software major on Wind Tunnel Road for dumping tons of thermocol into the drain.