No Respite For Bangaloreans

No Respite For Bangaloreans
The Times of India

Bangalore: Saturday 8 pm is when it all started. But the misery continued well past Monday. Though a new week had dawned, many areas — HSR Layout, Nayandahalli, BTM Layout, JP Nagar, Hebbal, RMV Extension, Kaggadaspura, Mavalli, Kumaraswamy Layout and Begur, to name a few — still had to bear and groan.

Even till Monday evening, Bangalore City Corporation personnel were pumping out water from the flooded roads and houses in HSR Layout’s Sector VII, what with the BCC having just three pumping machines. This time, the problem was in areas adjacent to lakes and tank beds. With water flowing from the upper areas of the city towards JP Nagar, City Municipal Council officials started digging 22nd Main to allow the water into the V Phase drain.

BCC officials said 132 houses have been damaged over the past two days in JP Nagar, Bannerghatta Road, Magadi Road, Gopalapura, Kalasipalyam, Viveknagar and Ejipura. A construction labourer died and two sustained injuries when a wall collapsed in an under-construction apartment complex in Hennur on Monday afternoon. The soil had become loose. The deceased is Mathyal, a native of Orissa. The injured are Bhanu Prasad and Dekal.
Building basements on Commercial Street, Austin Town, Commissariat Road, Frazer Town, Bannerghatta Road and eastern Bangalore were flooded. Less said the better about the areas situated in CMC areas. In Bommanahalli, residents of 25 buildings complained of flooded basements and roads.


Encroachments, but who cares
Bangalore: The downpour has exposed the ugly side of encroachments on tank beds. For instance, the link road at Hennur that leads to the international airport site had water all over the road and inside homes. Reason: half of the Hennur lake bed has been encroached upon.

Says Ananth Nair of Abbaiah Reddy Layout, Kaggadasapura: “A builder has encroached upon the storm water drain near my house. If the retaining wall of the drain collapses, the building will be washed away. We have written to the CMC, but nobody has responded.’’