Heavy rains, ‘scaringly’ gusty winds pound city

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Two days into June and the Garden City is seeing many of its trees getting uprooted with vigorous rains accompanied by gusty winds pounding the city on Sunday.

Around 200 trees have been uprooted across eight zones of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in the continous rain. As of 10.51 pm, the forest wing received 206 complaints of trees falling while 128 branches had fallen of which the offiicals claim to have removed 99.

South zone, which includes Jayanagar, saw 99 trees being uprooted. Visuals from social media showed an uprooted tree on top of two vehicles reportedly causing heavy damage. The west zone has the second highest number of complaints, with 36.

In the east zone, seven of 22 complaints of tree falling have been attended to. Control room officials say that a tree each has fallen on Residency Road, Swami Vivekananda Road and in Frazer Town. In Bommanahalli, an apartment gate was damaged near Gubbalala as a tree fell on it.

The zone, which saw 14 trees getting uprooted, also reported flooding in houses at Anugraha layout and Bilekahalli. Complaints of Water logging in HSR Layout were also reported with officials claiming to have cleared it. Yelahanka saw 19 trees getting uprooted. Eight have been cleared, according to BBMP officials.

A parking basement in an apartment complex at Thanisandra was flooded, control room official told News Trail. Water also entered homes in Bellahalli. In Mahadevapura zone, five trees were uprooted, and the Kothnur road at Hoodi was inundated.

Seven trees had fallen in Rajarajeshwari Nagar. Water entered homes in Ward 73 Rajiv Gandhi Nagar and Ward 69 Laggere. M N Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Bengaluru Traffic Police said that around 58 areas are waterlogged and trees have fallen at 39 locations on important arterial roads.

The traffic police reported trees falling on Domlur Flyover, Vishwanath Park near BTM Layout, Mekhri Circle among other places.

Branch falls on metro viaduct, services hit

To make matters worse, the branch of a tree fell on a metro viaduct at 7.26 pm just outside the Trinity metro station of the Purple Line.

No trains could run from Indiranagar to MG Road. Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), announced that the trains will run from MG Road to Challaghata and Indiranagar to Whitefield.

An Orange alert has been issued by the Meteorological Department (IMD) for Monday, June 3 and Tuesday, June 4 for districts in South Interior Karnataka (SIK) which includes Bengaluru.