Bangalore, November 23: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) control rooms were besieged by distress calls from citizens across the city on Saturday night. According to officials manning the control rooms, there were reports of homes being flooded from Krishnappa Garden, Kamakhya Layout and Journalists’ Colony. Several complaints of flooding were also received from Vyalikaval, Malleswaram, Hudson Circle and Shivananda Circle. There were reports of trees felled by the rain at Raj Bhavan, Ali Askar Road and Katriguppe. No loss of life was reported.
House of Kebabs, a popular restaurant on R.V. Road near Ashoka Pillar, was inundated with over one feet of rain water. Sanaaya R. Doust, whose family owns the restaurant, told The Hindu, “Despite several complaints, the BBMP had not taken any action to prevent flooding. Every time it rains, the restaurant gets flooded. We are forced to stop service when this happens.”
Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana said that the already bad situation in the city was compounded by manholes overflowing. “We cannot unclog the manholes till Sunday morning.” He said that he had directed zonal joint commissioners to clear shoulder drains to facilitate free flow of rain water.
Officials of the Indian Meteorological Department attributed the rains to a “temporary phenomenon”. They explained that high temperatures over the past two days had resulted in good cloud formation. Coupled with the upper air cyclonic circulation over Lakshadweep, it resulted in heavy rains over many parts of Kerala and south interior Karnataka.
B. Puttanna, director of the Met centre in Bangalore, told The Hindu that heavy rains were not uncommon in November. He pointed out that on November 1 last year, the city received 81.5 mm of rain water. But Saturday’s downpour beat that record by a healthy margin with the Met recording rainfall of 106.2 mm. Rains would continue to lash the city for another 48 hours, but the intensity would decrease, he added.
