Rain pounds Bangalore, swamps many localities

Rain pounds Bangalore, swamps many localities
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: It was not the effect of a hurricane or a river changing its course. Only a moderate rainfall. The city which has been witnessing rain fury since the last week, saw heavy flooding and devastation on Sunday too. It’s not just the low-lying areas that bore the brunt this time. The rain gods did not spare posh localities like the Dollars Colony in RMV II stage either. The locality was so named as it was meant to be an exclusive layout for NRIs who were allotted sites by the BDA way back in 1980s. On Sunday, the area looked like a mini river with water entering the posh compounds.
When it started raining, Padma Srinivasa, who was till then relaxing with her daughter-in-law
and four-month-old granddaughter, sprung into action. She started shifting things from the ground floor to safer places, moved out the vehicles from the garage and closed the flood gates. But once she saw the drain in front of her house swelling up, Padma knew this rain would maroon her house. And, within minutes, the road had threefeet water and the ground floor of her house submerged.
Nothing seems to have changed since the last monsoon: neither the pathetic conditions nor knee-jerk reaction of civic authorities. The weatherman has no cheering news either: the city will continue to have heavy rainfall in the next two days, dampening the Gowri-Ganesha festivities.
The intermittent rainfall of 20.4 mm on Sunday was termed as moderate in the weather books. But for the citizens, it was a nightmare. People who had made plans of going out had to be home-bound and were busy cleaning up their homes of the flooded mess.
Cut to the central areas — Seppings Road, Shivajinagar, Assey Road — they were totally under water. The scene was so bad that even two-wheelers parked on the roadside were seen floating. In Malleswaram, a portion of Margosa Road had collapsed and two buses were stuck which resulted in a traffic block. It took an hourlong operation to pull the wheels from the loose soil.
At Thimmaiah Garden, near RT Nagar, a wall collapsed which killed two cows and damaged three cars. A transformer adjoining the wall also collapsed which left the area in dark for sometime. Sanjaynagar Main Road and Mathikere bus stand were heavily flooded and posed a danger to commuters. Due to flooding of drains joining Ulsoor Lake, the surrounding areas had a backlash. HBR layout was a rainravaged area with the drain water flooding the sumps and houses.
The areas in the periphery faced rain fury with Hennur Bande, Vaddarapalya, Ramamurthynagar, Vijinipura, Lingarajpura, Subbannapalya, Kammanahalli, Cholonayakanahalli, Kadugondanahalli, parts of Yeshwanthpur and Dinnur submerged in water with more than 500 houses getting affected.
Eight tanks on the outskirts — Hebbal, Nagawara, Rachenahalli, Jakkur, Yelahanka, Kogilu, Agrahara, Bettahalasuru — overflowed inundating surrounding areas.
BBMP commissioner S Subramanya said measures initiated include shifting people to safer places, snapping power supply and taking care of food. About 200 families at Vaddarapalya were evacuated.