Only full stops here

Only full stops here
The Times of India


Bangalore: The city did not exactly grind to halt, but traffic on the roads crawled, inched and barely moved as the city bore the brunt of a crushing 77.6 mm (till late evening) of rainfall.

Schoolchildren and office-goers were stranded, businesses were affected, vehicles piled up on almost all arterial roads and roads turned into waterways.

Even the chief minister’s residential area was not spared. Just 100 metres from Dharam Singh’s residence on Sankey Road, a huge swimming pool appeared on the road below Windsor Manor bridge, leading to a massive traffic jam.

The worst-affected areas continued to be south-east and central parts of Bangalore: Electronics City, Silk Board Junction, Sarjapur Road, Hosur Road, Bannerghatta Road, Bellary road, Mysore Road, Tumkur Road and Magadi Road. Vehicles leaving and entering the city moved at snail’s pace with traffic cops struggling to make things move in the rain.

Just to indicate the misery of road users, it took over six hours to reach Silk Board Junction from Parappana Agrahara, a distance of 7 km! Six traffic inspectors and an ACP led by DCP stood in 3-ftdeep water near Madiwala to ensure that traffic moved.

Schoolchildren were the worst hit in central areas as they couldn’t step out of classrooms and walk up to the pickup.

At least 50 twowheelers and a couple of cars broke down on the roads, police said. Traffic police deployed two cranes near Silk Board Junction on Hosur Roads to pull the vehicles stuck on the waterlogged roads.

Buses and lorries to Tamil Nadu were diverted to Kolar Road to avoid further chaos on the highly congested Sarjapur, Hosur and Bannerghatta roads.

“The situation was returning to normal on Sarjapur Road by Tuesday morning since the city didn’t receive much rain on Monday. But the moment rain started again on Tuesday after 11 am, it was back to square one,’’ Traffic DCP (East) M A Saleem said.

Because of waterlogging on Hosur Road, people who took Sarjapur Road and Bannerghatta Road spent long hours stranded on the road. Situation on Bannerghatta Road turned bad with the police diverting traffic to this road from Chandapura Circle via Jigani on the outskirts. Bilekalli was under siege, and traffic was again diverted towards J P Nagar.

“Fearing road collapse on Sarjapur Road, we diverted traffic to Bannerghatta Road. Two lorries spoiled it on Sarjapur road on Monday,’’ Saleem added.

Mysore Road was another terrible stretch, with rain and drain water mixing up to form an unbelievable 6-ft-deep slushy mixture, forcing traffic police to stop traffic for almost three hours near Jnanabharati campus.

The situation at the 8th Milestone on Tumkur Road up to Dasarahalli was pathetic with trucks, blocking the road.