Rain subsides, battered Bengaluru gradually limps back to normal

Parts of Bengaluru, which witnessed heavy downpour over the past two days, are slowly limping back to normal with a let up in the rain in the evening on Wednesday.

The downpour last evening added to the woes of the citizens, who were already reeling under torrential rain since Monday night that lasted till Tuesday morning. The rain flooded major roads that made drainage water enter the houses in low-lying areas and left cars parked in the basement submerged.

Rescue boats were used in several affected residential localities to shift stranded residents, fire and rescue officials said.

The city was battered by 12.8 cm rain in five hours between Monday night and Tuesday morning, which is the highest in a day in August since 1890.

The worst-hit were south and eastern parts of Bengaluru — Koramangala, HSR Layout, Ejipura, Jayanagar, JP Nagar, BTM Layout, Bannerghatta Road and pockets of Indiranagar — where pre-dawn rain and winds snapped power lines, uprooted trees and inundated roads, submerging vehicles.

According to officials of the city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), clogged drains and unfinished work on storm water drains aggravated the situation, resulting in drainage water flooding residential areas.

BBMP officials, who came under fire from residents for being ill prepared to deal with such emergencies during the monsoons, struggled to bring relief to the exasperated people in these areas, some of them upmarket neighbourhoods.

'Toxic foam', allegedly due to the discharge of sewage water, filled large parts of the polluted Bellandur Lake in the city.

The Met department has forecast a generally cloudy sky and the likelihood of one or two more spells of rain or thundershowers for the city over the next two days.

Following the incessant rain, an under construction five-storey building has tilted and a crack has developed in one of the load bearing pillars at Ejipura in Bengaluru, officials said.

They said that norms have been flouted in the construction of the building which now needs to be demolished.

Residents of the neighbouring houses have been evacuated as a precautionary measure, officials said.

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, who visited the spot, also said the building needs to be demolished.