Record rainfall in North Bengaluru causes breach of two lakes in Yelahanka zone

The banks of the Kogilu Lake in Yelahanka and the Doddabommasandra Lake in Vidyaranyapura — both of which come under the Yelahanka Lake zone of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) — were breached following the heavy rainfall, city officials said.

The breach of the Kogilu Lake, spread over 40.4 acre, resulted in the flooding of homes at the Kendriya Vihar Apartment, and the breach of the Doddabommasandra Lake spread over 39.10 acres caused flooding at Tata Nagar, Bhadrappa Layout, and Balaji Layout. The Doddabommasandra Lake breach also resulted in the waterlogging of the Outer Ring Road between the BEL Circle and Hebbal Flyover, leading to massive traffic jams around Outer Ring Road and National Highway 48 at Goraguntepalya.

“Commuters were stuck in this section for over three hours on Tuesday evening before the traffic police began letting a single lane of traffic to move in the BEL Circle-Hebbal section after the water had receded in the area,” a police source said.

Traffic on the Outer Ring Road in the southeast of Bengaluru in the Mahadevapura Lake Zone was also thrown completely out of gear on Tuesday evening after lakes like the Bellandur Lake overflowed resulting in flooding of service roads along the Outer Ring Road between the Marathahalli and Iblur junctions. An alert issued by the Bellandur traffic police on Tuesday said waterlogging in the road resulted in slow-moving traffic near Ecospace Junction. Stretches along the Sarjapur Road were also inundated.

As commuters reported being stuck in slow-moving traffic along the section for over three hours, the police requested tech parks in the Outer Ring Road region to ask employees to remain at work till 8 pm to allow the traffic to ease in the section. “All road users are requested to avoid the ORR between Iblur and Marathahalli and use alternative roads. This stretch is completely congested due to water logging of service roads,” the Bengaluru traffic police said in a social media message on Tuesday evening.

Record rainfall in Bengaluru

The rain on Monday in Bengaluru broke the record for the highest daily rainfall received by a weather station in the city, registering 186.2 of rainfall mm at the India Meteorological Department’s G K V K station. “The heavy rainfall in a short period on Monday has resulted in the breach of the lakes in the region,” a city official said.

The highest recorded rainfall in Bengaluru was on October 1, 1997, when parts of the city received 178.9 mm of rainfall.

The thunderstorm on Monday evening was described as a ‘cloud-burst-like’ situation by Karnataka Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, as it crippled many parts of North Bengaluru due to overflowing lakes and water-logging at residential areas and roads.

The Kendriya Vihar apartment complex in Yelahanka was inundated with two to three feet of water from the Kogilu Lake. Residents had to be rescued by State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel in lifeboats. Several vehicles of residents were damaged.

In a social media post, the assistant commissioner of police (Traffic), Northeast division, said the service road from Kogilu junction towards IAF was closed to enable rescue operations of those stranded at Kendriya Vihar Apartments.

The lake bund of the Doddabommasandra Lake had breached for the first time in the last 17-18 years, said Revenue Minister Byregowda whose constituency is in the region. “Due to this, water has entered low-lying areas around Kodigehalli. The storm water drains too overflowed and entered layouts,” he said.

The lake outflow had reduced by Tuesday evening.

With the Kogilu Lake and the Doddabommasandra Lake located in the vicinity of the main road leading to the Bengaluru International Airport, traffic to the airport was also affected on Tuesday because of jams along the airport road and the adjacent Outer Ring Road.

IMD has issued a yellow alert for Bengaluru till Thursday, October 24, during which heavy rainfall and thunderstorms will continue in parts of the city.