Rainwater floods roads, houses

Rainwater floods roads, houses
DH News Service, Bangalore:


Cars and two wheelers on the roads utensils and furniture in the houses were literally floating in the water, in and around Hennur area following rains on Sunday. Vaddarapalya was completely submerged in almost eight to nine feet of water. Byraveshwara Layout had waist deep water and houses were flooded with water. The first stage of HBR Layout saw cars swirling along with the overflowing water from the storm water drains, while Hennur main road leading to the airport saw water overflowing on to the roads and the storm water drain close to submerging the road.

Arkavathy layout sites, adjacent to Byraveshwara Layout were also submerged in water and weeds. About 200 houses in the Bhadrappa Layout, Prakruti Layout, Arkavathy Layout, Narayana Vihara Layout have been completely flooded. The agony of these areas and the nearby locality of Vaddarapalya is aggravted by the fact that excess waters from nine lakes flows into these areas.

Overflowing water from eight lakes of Bettadahalasur, Agrahara, Yelahanka, Rachenahalli, Amrutha, Jakkur, Hebbal and Nagawara converges in Hennur Bande and moves on to Kalkere lake.

Secretary of Hennur Layout Residents Welfare Association, N Muniraju says that inspite of less rains on Sunday, water had flown into most of this homes. This, he said, was because the lakes are now full and the smallest amount of rain, pushes the water onto the roads and houses. The storm water drain which was being constructed by BBMP nearby was also stopped, leading to more water on the roads.

Problem starts

No amount of rationalisation of the problems seem to alleviate the plight of the people who stood on the streets unable to get into their houses. Residents resorted to raising bunds with plastic bags and barricades as a last resort to prevent further damage. But their problems look like they are only beginning now. Bens Sathya Enclave, off Hennur road, was completely cut off as its only access road was in almost waist deep water.

The first stage of HBR Layout also experienced heavy flooding on their roads, as water overflowed from the narrow and often blocked storm water drains into the roads. Some of the houses situated in low lying areas bore the brunt of the gushing water as cars and autos swirled with the waters and finally managed to lodged themselves at a safe place. Once again, blocked storm water drains, incomplete construction works, unauthorised constructions have all contributed towards this mess which has affected about a 100 houses.
Residents blame BBMP for the fact that it never completed the construction of a storm water drain, after building around 200 metres of it. Mohammad Anwar, President of the HBR Residents Welfare Association claimed that over 15 months of construction by diverting traffic and blocking the road, the storm water drain measuring about 30 feet across was not completed. This left water rushing from this drain, suddenly forced to fit through another drain, only 10 feet across.

Evacuation

The worst hit area here is the Vaddarapalya area, where water has risen as high as nine feet in some areas. BBMP is trying to evacuate people from their homes in this place. BBMP Joint Comissioner (Byatarayanapura) Virupaksha Mysore said that a temporary shelter has been arranged at Vaddarapalya Kalyana Mantapa for the affected people and medical assistance was also being provided.

ISKCON is providing meals and works have been undertaken here almost on a war footing. The Joint Commissioner also said that any affected people from the nearby areas could use the shelter as some of the submerged structures were in the danger of collapsing.
About 2000 people are estimated to have been affected.

NOT HEAVY RAIN: MET DEPT

Bangalore, dhns: If the Met Department were to be asked it was not a heavy downpour in the city, however, the traumatic experience of the people narrate the unpreparedness of the BBMP.

“It was not a heavy rainfall, it was just 20 mm in 12 hours. We have even seen 56 to 60 mm rains in one day,” said a source in the Met Department.

But the 20 mm rain wrecked havoc in the city. The major problem, according to the BBMP officials is that people instead of keeping the small storm water drains in front of their houses open, fill it with garbage.

Like the magic boxes, the magic culvert made by putting the granite slabs too exposed the shoddy work of the BBMP on the Sanjay Nagar main road. The culvert collapsed as the BMTC bus rolled over it. The front wheels of the bus got struck in the collapsed culvert. As a result the entire road was a chock-a-block, with vehicles being stranded on both sides of the road. People had to take a long route to reach their destinations. The worst affected was the Banaswadi-Hennur region, which saw flooding and rehabilitation of 2,000 people. The residents took refuge in a local marriage hall.