Rain brings smile to the city

Rain brings smile to the city
The Times of India


Bangalore: The rain on Saturday came as a pleasant surprise to most Bangaloreans after the mercury level touched up to 39 degree Celsius last week. According to the Met department, it rained 34.4 mm.

Weathermen have not ruled out chances of rain continuing for another 24 hours. An air trough up to 0.9 km above sea level from Telangana to South Tamil Nadu passing through interior Karantaka is the main reason for the moderate rainfall, they say. Apart from these, instability in atmosphere and supply of moisture content from Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal added to the cloud formation.

“Whatever it is, it was fun. It seemed like we missed the rain for too long and it was our most wanted weekend visitor,’’ said Shanthala, a housewife, who went back home drenched after a shopping spree on MG Road.

Reactions from many people were the same. But like every coin has two sides, the rain too did. The city’s pet peeve traffic became chaotic minutes after the rain as signals in different roads were not functional. What made it worse were water-logged roads. Even those roads like KH Road had water all over. Traffic went haywire in many parts including Wilson Garden, Bannerghatta Road, Madivala, Koramanagla and Indiranagar. A traffic police officer said motorists, mainly two-wheeler riders, were stranded in the heavy downpour. “There was a rush on the road after the rain stopped. This led to traffic getting piled up on many roads that were water-logged,’’ the officer said.

Areas affected included Rajarajeswarinagar, Mysore Road, Banashankari, CKC Garden, Basavanagudi and Hanumanthnagar. The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike control rooms were flooded with calls with complaints of bad roads from Wilson Garden, Sudhamanagar, Sankey Road, Airport and Gandhi Bazaar. With water-logging, power supply was suspended in some areas. But Bescom said power supply was resumed minutes after the rain.