Drain spreads stench on Church street

Drain spreads stench on Church street
Bangalore, dhns:

If you are planning to visit any of the 50-odd food joints on Church Street, then be prepared for the stench along accompanying the aroma of various eateries.

The reason: The decades old underground drain along the street is now completely choked and the filthy water is overflowing, resulting in unbearable stench. People are forced to take alternate routes to reach their destinations.

This stinking road has badly affected the business of the hotels and other shops. Said a hotelier, “My hotel is close to one of the fully choked man-holes and every morning, the dirty water hits the stair of my hotel. The foul smell enters the hotel, making my customers uneasy. Many of my regular customers have started to avoid my hotel, affecting my business,” he said. He blamed the BWSSB officials for not taking action despite repeated complaints about the choked drains. When contacted, the Assistant Executive Engineer of South East-1 Sub-division BN Ninge Gowda under whose jurisdiction Church Street comes, blamed the food joints for the choked sewerage lines.

“These eatout zones are throwing solid waste along with oily materials in the drain due to which the drain is blocked. We clear the drains from time to time but the problem persists,” Ninge Gowda pointed out.
He added that the drain is at least 20 years old and is narrow. “The pipes are of nine inch diameter, while we have proposed to replace the entire line with one-foot diameter pipes,” the officer said.