BANGALORE: Bangalore saw its worst-ever traffic jam on Friday. Most Bangaloreans reached home at least two hours late.

Reason? Rains and water logged roads.

Even the vehicles carrying officials and teams from the fire services rushing to help the people affected by rains could not reach the destinations in time. The Bangalore Mahangara Palike's squads which needed to reach areas where trees had fallen on roads too were caught in the jam.

Some said it took nearly three hours to cover a distance of nine kilometres. "Traffic moved only four feet a minute," said one of them. But the people caught in the jam were not able to figure out what actually was causing the hold-up.

Police had tough time in managing the situation. K.V.R. Tagore, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), who described this as the worst traffic jam he had seen, said manhole covers opened on many roads after one-and-half-hour's of rain. As a result, the roads literally became pools of water.

At a few places the water got collected on the roads up to four-and-half feet high. This happened particularly near Urvashi theatre on Lalbagh Road. Here, the vehicles had to be brought backwards in one way and diverted.

For similar reasons, vehicles came to a standstill for over an hour on Hosur Road, Seshadripuram (water-logging near Platform Road) and around Ulsoor and Ejipura.

Mr. Tagore said rains started first around Jayanagar. Soon the roads near Urvashi cinema started clogging bringing vehicles to a standstill.

As the water level went on rising, the vehicles had to be backed out from here. Soon rains spread to Infantry Road and surrounding areas, clogging roads in that area bringing the vehicles to a halt.

A semblance of normality could be restored in traffic movement only around 9 p.m.

Many vehicles that tried to cross water-clogged roads suffered breakdown. Water entering into cars and other vehicles was a common complaint. People were forced to push cars and autorickshaws that got stuck.

Autorickshaw drivers reportedly charged four times the usual rate to ferry the people to their destination. Getting an autorickshaw itself was a Herculean task for many.

Man killed

A two-wheeler rider was killed when a mini truck hit him near Nehru Circle in Seshadripuram police station limits on Friday evening.

The Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), K.V.R. Tagore, attributed the cause of the accident to poor visibility owing to heavy downpour.

The police are yet to ascertain the details of the accident.

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