Drain remodelling work moving at snail's pace

Drain remodelling work moving at snail's pace
Vijay Times

EVEN as officials of the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) keep making tall claims about their level of preparedness to handle situations that may arise during monsoons, the small intensity rain that the City experienced on T uesday and W ednesday has brought to light the sad state of affairs. Some parts of the City were flooded with storm water after the City received just 16.1 mm of rainfall on T uesday .

It may be recalled that last year , several parts of the City were marooned after being lashed by rains. The rains claimed around eight lives and threw normal life out of gear . The unprecedented monsoon caused heavy loss to both private and public properties. Several parts of the City plunged into darkness as hundreds of trees and lamp posts were uprooted by strong winds that accompanied the rains.

Some of the apartments in Puttenahalli, Bommanahalli, and Byatarayanapura, and some areas in and around Hosur Road, Hennur Main Road, Indiranagar Main Road, Madivala, J P N agar , Banashankari, Rose Garden, parts of Domlur , Airport Road, Koramangala, Y eshwanthpur , Jalahalli, Mathikere and Malleswaram were inundated.

The BCC, which came in for sharp criticism from the public and the media for its lackluster efforts last year , has been taking steps to ensure that the public are not subjected to the same kind of hardships again. H o wever , the pace at which work is being carried out is slow .

Though the BCC, to avoid the problem of deluge in the City and to save roads from being battered again, has taken up the task of remodelling valleys at a cost of Rs 500 crore, work has not been going on at an ideal pace. Sudhakar , a resident of K oramangala, alleged that the drain remodelling work was going on at a snail’s pace. "Our repeated requests to expedite works to both contractors and officials have fallen on deaf ears," he lamented.

Remodelling of drains have been taken up under 16 packages, which are in different stages. While the remodelling of V rishabhavati V alley has been taken up at a cost of Rs 178.87 crore, the remodelling of H ebbal V alley has been taken up at a cost of Rs 150.75 crore. The figures for K oramangala V alley and Challaghatta V alley are Rs 78.63 crore and Rs 88.76 crore, respectively . R Re em mo od de el ll li in ng g p pa ac ck ka "Remodelling work on V rishabhavathi V alley has been taken up under five packages. W ork on packages three and four have been going on in full swing while work on other packages like one, two and five will commence shortly ," a BCC engineer said and added that work orders had been issued for them.

"W ork on the Hebbal V alley has been divided into four packages. Of these, package one has been completed while work on packages two , three and four have now commenced. W ork is going on in full swing," he added.

"W ork pertaining to the K oramangala V alley has been divided into four packages and work is in progress. Desilting work has been completed and civil works are going on," he added. "The Challaghatta V alley work has been taken up under three packages. W ork on all the three packages have been going on as per schedule," the engineer said. He highlighted the problems of drains being encroached and the practice of waste being dumped into drains.

"U nless the public realise the problems arising out of SWDs, flooding problems cannot be o vercome," he said. According to sources in the BCC, the City receives an average rainfall of 970 mm annually from 250 sq kms of catchment area.

Rapid urbanisation, development of new areas along storm water drain valleys and tank beds, and insufficient gradient in drains had resulted in flooding, the sources added.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East, T raffic) M A Saleem has sent a letter to BCC urging the authorities to take proper action to avoid roads being flooded during the monsoon. H e has also requested them to undertake the task of desilting the drains that run along the main roads to enable smooth flo w of water .

V alley Length drain (kms) drain (km

Koramangala 19.6 Challaghatta 1 Hebbal 25.80 25.77 Vrishabhavathi 31.98 56.42

Desilting work underway at the National Games Vill A storm water drain under construction at Koramang