Rain exposes Bengaluru’s poor infra

Compiled by Rachana Ramesh, Hameed Ashraf; pix: Satish B

ORR’s nightmare gets real

Hundreds of employees working in and around RMZ Ecospace on the Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru had to experience the dark side of peak-hour traffic, which was exaggerated due to heavy overnight rains. There was at least two to three feet of water on the ORR starting from Silk Board junction to Bellandur, Marathahalli and Sarjapur Road, making it impossible for two-wheeler riders to pass through.

Many companies situated in flooded areas allowed their employees to work from home during this period. While they were already working in a hybrid model and had almost restored normalcy with most employees entirely back to work, the rains wreaked havoc.

2 killed as building roof collapses

Two workers died inside a Cauvery water pipeline in Upkar Layout, located in the Ullal area. The duo, Dev Bharath Kushwaha (36) and Ankit Kumar Sahni (23) from Bihar, were part of a nine-member team that was carrying out welding works for water pipelines in the layout when they got trapped in rainwater that rushed inside. Their bodies were removed the next day after the excess water was pumped out of the large pipes.

Elite gated communities not above nature fury

Epsilon, one of the city’s most exclusive gated communities, 13 km away from the central business district, was also not spared from the floods. Home to Bengaluru’s corporate and business elite, its residents include old-money billionaires like Rishad Premji, the chairman of Wipro, and new-age startup billionaires like Byju Raveendran.

The famous residents had to be reduced to boats after excessive rains, leaving their flooded multimillion-dollar homes behind. A basic villa in Epsilon costs Rs 10 crore, and depending on the size of the plot, the price accordingly increases. When one puts down such a massive amount of housing, the last thing they would expect is to be flooded, which routinely happens in slum dwellings.

Rainbow Drive — layout or lake?

The man-made tragedy... The layout is spread over 35 acres, developed some 25 years ago on what were once paddy fields. This area, as one can see on the elevation map, is in a valley area, connecting the lakes of Halanayakanahalli and Junnasandra downstream to Saul Kere.

Located in Sarjapur, it has consistent flooding due to the downpours, with the streets of the layout being filled up to knee-length. Tired of waiting for civic agencies to intervene, the residents arranged for a tractor to ferry them to school and offices as their vehicles were unable to move through the inundated streets. The layout, which has more than 300 houses, was cut off from help for over 72 hours due to the flooding.