Sudden deluge of rains trigger traffic jams, water-logging in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Roads in Bengaluru were choked with traffic on Saturday, with the rain playing spoilsport to commuters’ weekend plans.

Long, glaring red lines painted the city’s digital maps as vehicles crawled through slush, sewage and rainwater in many parts of the city.

Waterlogging was reported in multiple junctions along the Hosur Road between Chandapura Circle and Bommasandra near Hebbagodi. Vehicles coming towards the city was particularly affected and witnessed bumper-to-bumper traffic for almost three kilometres near the Bommasandra gate.

The traffic moving out of the city witnessed a kilometre-long jam on Saturday night. Severe waterlogging was seen near the Bommasandra Industrial Area, causing significant traffic congestion, police officers said. A long line of vehicles were seen along the roads connecting Electronics City to Hosur Road.

Parts of RR Nagar and West zone of the BBMP received the maximum rains. Malleswaram, Magadi Road reported complaints of tree fall and water gushing into houses. Many trees have reportedly fallen across the city, but left no significant damages, either to men or material. One of the tree that fell, however, damaged a pipeline in Malleswaram, causing excess water logging.

As of 8.30 pm, the Meteorological Centre Bengaluru, India Meteorological Department (IMD)’s Bengaluru city observatory, recorded 10.4 mm of rainfall with thunder, while the HAL observatory recorded 26.1 mm of rain with thunder.

Apart from the south, one of the worst affected roads was the Jayamahal Main Road, which the traffic police noted was due to sewage overflowing from the Palace Grounds premises. This affected traffic from Cantonment railway station to Mehkri Circle.

On Mysuru Road, most of the flyover and the critical junctions such as the Nayandahalli and Gali Anjaneya temple were clogged. This was due to the stormwater drain at Jnanabharathi overflowing onto the road. A user (@AjayPrabhu55) posted images of Nayandahalli flooding on social media platform X and said, “#Bengalururains heavy rains in Bangalore. Mysore to Nayandahalli road is fully blocked.”

A similar situation was observed along the Tumakuru Road, which saw a high outbound flow of vehicles. Yeshwanthpur, CMTI, Goraguntepalya and Sandal Soap Factory junctions were clogged due to the heavy downpour.

Citizens Movement, East Bengaluru's official X account posted a video of flooding in Kalyan Nagar and said, "Service roads, internal roads, underpasses are heavily waterlogged! Please avoid these! Current scene on Kalyan Nagar Service Road, ORR. #BengaluruRains."

Water was also reported leaking into the Srikrishna Devaraya Palike Bazar in Vijayanagar.