Revenue Minister Ashoka blames drain encroachment
With more downpours predicted, BBMP claims it is ‘rain ready’
BENGALURU:
It’s once again clear that Bengaluru’s drain infrastructure cannot cope with more than 100 mm of rain in a single day. The worst-affected Dattatreya Layout and adjoining areas in Hosakerehalli reported 125 mm of rain in just 4 hours on Friday evening, leaving many houses flooded.
Meanwhile, the Met department has issued a yellow alert for Bengaluru city for the next 2 days, indicating that the city can expect anywhere between 64 mm and 115 mm of rain.
Even as BBMP officials began collating rain-related losses of individual house owners, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Saturday directed BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad to do a recce of the waterlogged areas.
Revenue Minister R Ashoka, who represents Padmanabhanagar as MLA, visited the affected areas again on Saturday morning accompanied by BBMP Administrator Gaurav Gupta and Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad. Assuring the affected residents of all kinds of help, the Minister said, “I have visited each affected house and we are trying to assess the individual losses due to the heavy downpour. The health department has been directed to take precautionary measures against a rise in Covid infections.”
‘Remove encroachments’
Ashoka said the SWD encroachment was responsible for the flooding in the area. “I personally visited the spot and was told that people have encroached on the drain. The drain, which should have been more than 5 feet wide, is just half a foot wide at certain points. Rampant development in the locality and officials and engineers ignoring encroachments have to be blamed for this. I have directed the engineers to undertake an stringent encroachment removal drive,” he said.
Prasad said the civic agency was ready to shift people to safer areas the weatherman has predicted 2 more days of heavy rain, but residents do not want to move out of their localities.
“We are well prepared to tackle the situation. Friday’s rain water was drained out within half an hour of the rain stopping. BBMP has undertaken remodelling of around 400 km of storm water drains and the work will take some more time to complete,” he added.
According to the weatherman, at least 15 localities across the city received more than 50 mm of rain on Friday. Kengeri and RR Nagar topped the list with 103 mm and 102 mm respectively as of 7pm.
Govindamma, a resident of Hosakerehalli, said, “The water level started rising in the evening hours and gushed into our house. I and my children were inside and were rescued by other residents.” Another resident, Murugan, said many parked vehicles were submerged.
Also Read: Rain turns parts of Bengaluru into mini rivers https://thebengalurulive.com/rain-turns-parts-of-bengaluru-into-mini-rivers/
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