Rain gives a fright in the night

Rain gives a fright in the night

Several roads flooded, vehicle falls into vrishabhavati valley after retaining wall crashes

Team DNA. Bangalore



The skies opened up in full fury over Bangalore past Sunday midnight, stretching the city's fragile storm water drain network and heaping miseries on the citizens.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) recorded 50.4 mm of rainfall in the city, while the airport received 40.7 mm.
The rain, which continued well into Monday morning, resulted in a spate of calls flooding the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on overflowing drains and water-logged roads.
Among these panic calls was one about a tempo traveller that fell into a storm water drain near Gali Anjaneya Temple on Mysore Road, when a part of the retaining wall of Vrishabhavati Valley collapsed in the wee hours of Monday.
According to a BBMP engineer, the wall of the valley had become weak due to ongoing work on the road being constructed over the drain. This work was obstructing free flow of water resulting in the water lashing constantly on to the wall. Furthermore, dwellers of the nearby Bapujinagar slum had also made openings in the walls of the valley to throw sanitary waste directly into the valley.
The heavy downpour on Sunday night forced the wall to cave in and take along with it the tempo traveller that was parked illegally along the wall.
Twenty-five meters of the weakened wall collapsed at around 6.30 am on Monday. The vehicle was fished out by the owners at around 11 am, the official added. The empty tempo belonged to Traveller Taxi, a private company. At night this company was using the space along the valley's wall to park its vehicles. No casualties or injuries were reported.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that the retaining wall of the valley has caved in. A similar case was reported on May 20 this year, 100 meters away from the present location. The wall of the valley had collapsed due to illegal connections of sanitary lines, leading to a collapse during a heavy downpour.
"Caution tapes and boards have been put up on the service lane connecting Mysore Road and Bapujinagar slum. As a temporary solution, sand bags have been placed along a 30-meter stretch. But as a permanent solution, a 150-meter reinforced cement concrete (RCC) wall is being constructed with a budget of Rs99 lakh," the BBMP engineer added.
Ideally, as per the law, BBMP officials should file a case with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) against these slum-dwellers for encroaching the sides of the storm water drain and letting out sanitary waste. But on humanitarian grounds, BBMP ward officials will request Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) officials to look into the matter and ensure that the slum dwellers let out sanitary waste into the existing sanitary line.
Apart from this, overflowing manholes were reported from Hessaraghatta Main Road. Water logging was reported at Hongasandra where vehicles were stranded for hours together.
Overflowing and stagnant water was also reported at Silk Board junction and Begur Road junction. Storm water drains were clogged at Prashanthnagar, Bagalkunte and Bhuvaneshwarinagar. Stagnant water was also reported at Mico Layout.
Besides this, tree fall cases were reported from Sanjayanagar, Indiranagar, Raj Bhavan Road, Langford Road, Johnson Market, Basaveshwaranagar, BEML Layout, Gayathri Nagar, Grihalakshmi Layout, Jayanagar, Chamrajpet and Domlur. A car was reportedly damaged in a tree-fall case at JP Nagar.