Traffic at a standstill as Bengaluru inundated amid heavy rains; poor infrastructure in focus

'It was not heavy rainfall that caused flooding but the poor infrastructure,' a senior Met dept official said

Heavy rains lashed the city throughout Sunday night. The downpour, which began at 7.30 pm, picked up pace between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm with 13 mm rainfall in just one hour.

According to officials with the Met Department, the extent of rainfall from 9.30 pm slowly gathered momentum from 3 cm at 9.30 pm to 9 cm over five hours. "What Bengaluru experienced late Sunday night was distributed rainfall between 7.30 pm and 5.45am. It was not the heavy rainfall that caused flooding in many parts of the city, but the poor infrastructure," said a senior official with the Met Department.

The city received 28.1 mm rainfall on Sunday, 368 per cent more than the average, according to data compiled by the IMD. It has received 141 per cent more rainfall than average since the start of monsoon season on June 1.

The Bengaluru Traffic Police on Monday issued an advisory asking residents to avoid Outer Ring Road, Sarjapur Road, Doddakannahalli road, Whitefield main road and Bellandur road.

Majority of the arterial roads in the IT hub of Bengaluru remain completely inundated. Traffic has piled up on most roads especially between Marathahalli and Central Silk Board. The ORR near Eco Space has been reduced to one lane as the remaining portion of the road is flooded. Varthur - Balagere and Panathur stretches have turned into a river.

"Bengaluru and south interior Karnataka are likely to get heavy rainfall until Friday. From Saturday, rainfall activity will go down," said a senior weather official with IMD based in Pune.

DH Radio: Why do Bengaluru roads get flooded each year?

Earlier, this week, RR Companies Association had written to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, highlighting the poor quality of infrastructure in the IT hub. The companies had estimated a loss to the tune of Rs 225 crore as their employees were stuck on the inundated roads on August 30. Monday's situation appears worse.

As usual, the residents of Rainbow Drive layout and Sunny Brooks Layout on Sarjapur road have deployed tractors to ferry students and employees from the flood-affected layout.

On Monday, sources told Reuters that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc had asked their employees to work from home. IT major Wipro and Flipkart said they had asked employees to work from home.

"After two years of work from home, companies are coming back and infrastructure has completely collapsed," said Krishna Kumar, General Manager at the Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA).

The group represents firms whose offices are located on the Outer Ring Road, which acts as a major connector in the city.

"Authorities need to focus on scaling up the infrastructure," Kumar said.

“Due to heavy water logging near Eco world, we are diverting the traffic inside EcoWorld campus to Doddakannalli to connect Sarjapur main road. Commuters please avoid this route if it is possible,” HAL Airport Traffic police tweeted.

KSRTC bus stand

The roads leading to Shanthinagar bus stand, near depot 2 and 3 were flooded with buses finding it difficult to enter and leave the depot. Regular passengers taking these buses were stranded and had to wait till the water receded.

(With agency inputs)