Days after PM inaugurates metro station in Whitefield, light rain leaves it flooded

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Barely a few days after PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the new Metro station in Whitefield, a sudden spell of rain has left it flooded, leaving commuters fuming and facing trouble commuting on Wednesday.

The general public may have heaved a sigh of relief over the rain, but not the Metro commuters. They have said the urgency to throw open the station is nothing but “mismanagement” of the administration in the poll-bound state. Built at a cost of Rs 4,249 crore, the Whitefield (Kadugodi) to Krishnarajapuram (KR Puram) Metro stretch was inaugurated to help people, according to Metro officials.

The not-too-heavy rain and resultant flooding of the station has dismayed its users. Videos of the flooded station and woes of passengers soon went viral on social media. This is the second development project inaugurated by the PM recently that has made news for the wrong reasons, revealing the inability of the officials in taking proper steps to prevent waterlogging and failure to take flood mitigation methods.

The previous one was the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway, which was also flooded days after its inauguration last month. ‘It was not even a monsoon rain’ Talking to News Trail, Sumanth (name changed on request) said, “It was not even a heavy downpour like you would have during monsoons, and the place got flooded. Imagine the scene when the city receives a heavy downpour?” Anand, an IT professional, blamed the government for trying to implement several schemes “with an eye on the upcoming elections”.

“In doing so, they are compromising on the safety of people. What other result can the government expect?” he added. The brief spell of rain also inundated other parts of the area.

Water submerged roads connecting Forum Mall with the Hope Farm Junction and the ones around Varthur Kodi Junction made maneuvering them difficult for motorists and pedestrians alike. Taking to Twitter to complain about the situation, a user named Kamran, in a sarcastic tweet, said, “Waterlogging did not happen because of corruption and unplanned construction. It happened because the water did not want to travel and wanted to stay in the Varthur Kodi area.”