The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Rain exposes city’s infrastructure yet again

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Saturday, Aug 16, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Rain exposes city’s infrastructure yet again

Staff Reporter

Shoulder drains got clogged and roads turned into pools

Officials claim that most of the shoulder drains along major roads had been cleared of silt
‘The traffic was chaotic because of the holiday rush and tree-fall’

Bangalore: The fragile infrastructure of Bangalore was exposed yet again on Thursday following the torrential rain for more than three hours. With clogged shoulder drains and blocked inlets, the rainwater took its own course on the roads, turning them into pools.

Though the usual complaints of inundation of low-lying areas were very few this time, all major roads literally became storm water drains as the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) did not clear most of the shoulder drains of silt. The resultant water logging jammed the roads and traffic was chaotic even beyond 11 p.m., causing hardships to citizens.

BBMP officials, who expressed helplessness, said it was natural for rainwater to stagnate for sometime. The chief engineers of BBMP East, West and South zones claimed that most of the shoulder drains along major roads had been cleared of silt.

Justifying waterlogging on the roads, the officials said that “most drains are clogged because people dump waste into them,” they said.

“That may be true in residential areas. What is the reason for water logging on Ambedkar Veedhi (in front of Vidhana Soudha) even after a drizzle?” asked a traffic constable.

On Thursday too, cars and two-wheelers were submerged in rainwater up to two feet on this prominent road. Apart from discharging their duty of regulating traffic in the torrential rain, the traffic police had to do all the donkey work of clearing the drain inlets, removing fallen tree branches and pushing broken down vehicles across the city. One harried traffic policeman was heard cursing the BBMP for not doing its job, forcing his helpless creed to don the role of a civic worker.

“It is natural for rainwater to stagnate on the roads for a while. It will take sometime for the water to run off into the drain,” said BBMP Chief Engineer (East) H.C. Ananthswamy.

“We have desilted 50 km of shoulder drains in the West zone. The traffic was chaotic because of the holiday rush and tree-fall,” said Chief Engineer (West) A.M. Nayak.

“Our safe capacity is 70 mm of rainfall and our storm water drain network cannot handle anything beyond that. But the intensity of rain was not so heavy on Thursday and areas in South zone were not affected,” said Chief Engineer (South) Jeevan Paul.

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