Building collapse, closure of apartments, overflowing lakes and flooded roads: Rain wreaks havoc in India’s IT capital Bengaluru

On Monday evening, Bengaluru set a new record for the highest daily rainfall at a weather station in Bengaluru, with 186.2 mm recorded at the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) GKVK station in the northern part of the city. This is the highest daily rainfall registered by an IMD station in the city in 27 years, surpassing the previous record of 178.9 mm on October 1, 1997.

Traffic chaos

Following the overnight rainfall, the roads from morning were flooded leading to chaos on the streets. The Bengaluru traffic police had to divert the traffic in many parts of the city. On Tuesday evening, following heavy rainfall, the state government announced a holiday at government and private schools in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The government also issued advisories to all IT-BT companies in Bengaluru to work from home on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, an under construction building in Bengaluru collapsed where nearly 20 workers were working. The building collapse took place in the Anjanadri Layout in north Bengaluru. The workers were inside a six-storeyed under-construction building.

D Devaraj, DCP (east) informed the media that one person had died while 14 of them were rescued and five people are still missing.

NDRF boats to rescue trapped residents

Unusual scenes hogged the attention as the rescue team led by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had to evacuate residents of the Kendriya Vihar apartments complex using boats. The apartment, majorly occupied by senior central government employees, is located 14 km from the Yelahanka Air Force Base. This is the second time that water logging has been reported at this apartment in the last one week.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D K Shivakumar said, “We have also ordered the closure of some of the apartments for the next eight days. We are pumping out water from flooded areas at 20 different places in the city using 20-25 HP pumps.”

Shivakumar added, “Nature can’t be stopped. We have seen floods in Dubai and pollution in Delhi. Our teams are working round the clock and I am personally monitoring the relief works. The south and western parts of the city are most affected. A lake has breached in Dasarahalli and five layouts are flooded in Mahadevapura zone. We are trying to fix the issues.”

“I was also stuck in the rain on Monday evening. On our way back from Challakere to Bengaluru, we were stranded in 2 feet of water near Nelamangala. Chowdeshwari Nagar has received 150 mm of rain. Many places have received 300 per cent of excess rain. Officials have submitted a report regarding this. We have asked many residents to evacuate their homes due to flooding. Five State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and NDRF teams have been deployed,” he added.

Weather predictions

IMD officials expect heavy rain over the next few days in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu amid what they called an “upper air cyclonic circulation” over Bay of Bengal.

A cloud burst-like condition caused a downpour near Yelahanka and Vidyaranyapura late on Monday, causing major water-logging in many parts of the area. According to BBMP, the flooding had affected 1,030 houses in the Yelahanka zone alone.

The office goers in the IT tech corridor and other parts of the city were seen stuck in traffic for several hours due to road flooding. Several lakes, including the Allalsandra lake, breached leading to waterlogging in residential areas and public roads on Tuesday.

The Manpho Convention Centre and the Manyata Tech Park premises also witnessed waterlogging and the authorities attribute it to lake land encroachment.

Political slugfest

Amid waterlogging, the BJP slammed Congress, blaming their alleged negligence that led to the situation in Bengaluru. BJP leader CT Ravi said, “Earlier, Bengaluru used to have thousands of ponds; Who looted it all? Who earned money from that? They are looting (us). Bengaluru, despite being an international city, is in such a condition, who is responsible?”

Taking to X, JD(S) in a post wrote “Welcome to Brand Bengaluru! Where a physically challenged woman falling into a pothole during heavy rains is just another day in paradise. While@siddaramaiah&@DKShivakumarkeep patting themselves on the back for their ‘visionary’ governance, the city’s crumbling infrastructure is doing all the talking. BBMP’s mastery in turning roads into death traps is unmatched. Bravo on setting new standards of neglect and irresponsibility.”

BJP and JD(S) also lashed out at Shivakumar for not visiting the flood affected areas. In response, Shivakumar said that flood relief works were more important than his visit.

“Our officials have been involved in flood relief works for the last 48 hours. What is important right now is the relief work, not my visit,” he said speaking to reporters at his Sadashivanagar residence.