Bengaluru on edge as heavy rain leads to waterlogging, traffic snarls at several places

Heavy rain wreaks havoc in parts of Bengaluru    

Bengaluru, October 20

Normal life was thrown out of gear after heavy rain lashed Bengaluru on Wednesday night, which resulted in flooding in parts of the city, waterlogging, incidents of tree fall, damage to certain infrastructure and power outage in several parts.

The 70 mm rainfall, as recorded by the Meteorology department, brought parts of the city to its knees.

Over a month after the flooding on September 7, the city once again received heavy downpour affecting most the areas.

The worst effect of the rain was seen at Seshasdripuram where the retaining wall of the Metro Rail collapsed damaging seven cars and a few bikes. No one was present when the wall came down crashing.

 One of the car owners demanded that the government should compensate for the loss of their vehicles alleging that shoddy work led to the wall collapse.

 Shivajinagar resembled a river and cars and bikes were seen floating in water. People struggled hard to save their belongings.

 At HSR Layout, nearly 200 families were affected when water gushed into their houses including the basements of a few apartments.

 Anugraha Layout in Bilekahalli was badly affected as the entire colony was waterlogged.

The road in front of Disha Centra in Balagere in Varthur ward resembled a river even 12 hours after the rain.

 According to Jagadish Reddy, a resident of the area, the basement of many apartments in the area was flooded submerging many vehicles after the downpour.

 The Outer Ring Road, which was badly hit a month ago due to heavy rains remained unaffected, an office-bearer of the Outer Ring Road Companies’ Association told PTI.

 A BBMP official said the anti-encroachment drive taken up by the civic agency minimised the damage this time.

 The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast a few spells of rain or thundershowers, heavy at times is very likely during the next 24 hours.

 The city has been receiving rain for the last few days.

 The deluge last month had caused havoc leading to large-scale destruction to properties in the city and several offices had asked its employees to work from home.