70 per cent of Bangalore experiences frequent power outages due to rain
The effects of Cyclone Nilam, which hit the Tamil Nadu coast on Wednesday, threw life out of gear in most parts of Karnataka, including Bangalore. Some 37.2 mm of rain lashed the city all day, causing a host of problems for citizens. The usual horrendous traffic jams were compounded by long hours with no power supply.
Commute within the city turned stressful with bumper-to-bumper traffic on most thoroughfares right from the morning. It got steadily worse by evening when the rains intensified.
The mood of those who finally managed to reach home only grew darker thanks to power outages, with more than 70 per cent of the city experiencing frequent power outages.
Traffic hit
Traffic in several parts of Bangalore, especially in the central business district, was severely affected., particularly Richmond Road, Nrupatunga Road, Kempe Gowda Road, M.G. Road, Koramangala Ring Road, Lal Bagh Road, Malleswaram, Yeshwantpur, Airport Road and K.R. Puram. Traffic jams were reported on almost all roads during the peak hours.
A harried commuter said it took her 15 minutes to crawl from the golf course to Cauvery Theatre at 10 p.m. The road was waterlogged in many places too, she said, adding that the police were clearly overwhelmed by the scale of the jam.
Stuck past midnight
Another driver reported being stuck at the Old Madras Road-Indiranagar 100 Ft. Road junction way past midnight with vehicles coming every which way.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M.A. Saleem told The Hindu the personnel who had completed the first shift were summoned back to duty. The city’s innumerable pot-holes, filled with rainwater, contributed to the mayhem.
With the rains predicted for another three days, the traffic police can take some comfort that Thursday is a government holiday on account of Karnataka Rajyotsava.
Tree falls
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) control rooms received a few calls about tree falls. Gusty winds and continuous rain uprooted trees in Indiranagar, Hennur Main Road, Basaveshwaranagar, Hanumanthnagar, Peenya, Frazer Town, Infantry Road and Koramangala. A car was damaged when a tree fell on it at Pulikeshinagar.
D.J. Halli councillor Sampath Raj claimed around 40 houses in Roshan Nagar were inundated. “This is mainly because of the incomplete drain work. Though the tender has been awarded, the officials have failed to execute the work. I have been running from pillar to post trying to get the work started.”
No power supply
Several areas, including Kaggadasapura, Vidyaranyapura, HAL Main Road, Suddaguntepalya, Malleswaram, Jayanagar, Banashankari and parts of Electronics City reported power supply disruption. Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) control rooms were flooded with no less than 1,400 complaints, more than thrice the daily average. Officials attributed it this both tree fall and problems caused in the insulators on electricity poles due to rain.
Garbage disposal
BBMP officials said the rain is likely to affect garbage clearance. Around 1,000 tonnes of it is still dumped on the city’s streets. H.C. Ananthswamy, Chief Engineer (Solid Waste Management) expected problems on that front. “It has rained all day. There also may be some problems in transporting garbage to the landfills,” he said.
Met Department officials said Bangalore will wake up to another rainy day on Thursday with gusty winds and plummeting mercury.
Keywords: Bangalore rainfall, BBMP, power cuts
Serves people right for flocking to these concrete cities and over crowding the place in their greed for quick money and easy living. Then they find out that life becomes more and more impossible as not even the government nor municpality can cope with numbers thate ressemble those of insects. Like insects they are attracted to the bright lights of cities only to end up dead at early age from exhaustion or from disease from the filth and garbage that they throw out without conscience to dirty the streets expecting others to do their dirty work for a pittance of a municipality fee
@Narayanan Iyer : Sir..No comparison bet india & us . Sandy is 10 times more strong than this one . had sandy occured here..Bangalore would ve been reduced to sands.
It's not only a shame on our 'democratic' system, but just shows the
so-called values that these elected 'leaders' espouse. To top it, we
now hear the MHRD talking about starting a program on 'moral
education'. As if the fellows up in the highest embodiment of the
democratic system practice even one of the very morals they want to
shove it down the throats of the next generation - OUR KIDS. With what
right can we teach our kids, the values of truth, honesty, discipline,
hard work when people all around them don't do so, starting from the
very top of the pecking order? And yet we continue to elect these so
called democratically elected 'leaders'. We all must hang our heads in
shame to bring ourselves into this situation. When new nations such as
the US were formed there was an underlying sense of wanting to build a
nation, a nation that will be a beacon for the next several hundreds
of years. We need to ask ourselves whose fault is this.
I read the hindu since 1981 only for the good English even though it is a news paper.
But what is this english!! - See this
Stuck past midnight
Another driver reported being stuck at the Old Madras Road-Indiranagar 100 Ft. Road junction way past midnight with vehicles coming "every which way".
And, to think that is *just* 37.2 mm rain. By no stretch of imagination
is this serious rain. Perhaps, it is time to disband general taxation
and political leadership, and have people in a community directly
contribute to, and maintain local infrastructure.
Well Bangalore was suppose to lead India in many fronts at
International level,, but the apathy of authorities/ govt officials/
BBMP has made it worse with no proper cordination among the civic
agencies and govt is least bothered or worried about the present
situation that has affecting the citizens and common man of bangalore,
the city has lost its elegance of greenery calmness n low laid
environment which attracted people all over the world.. today its just
an example of how a well groomed son has gone to be a smoker drinker
prostitution,,,,, sorry but cant find better example for the given
situation in bangalore and careless attitude of officials from chief
minister to clerk
Sir,
What you have pointed out is absolutely right. But we are better than
US. They could not cope up with single Sandy and it effect aftermath.
There in US there is no power,transport,water logging,traffic jams
etc.., after Sandy.
Here in India it is routine affair yearly and we are back to normal in
few hours.
However i echo your views on infrastructure.
we have just inherited or hanged on to the evils of democracy.....no
wonder such things happen....
Mr. Shankar has rightly said that after decades of independence we are still dependent even for basics. As a matter of fact, the turmoil is increasing by the day and there seems to be not much hope of seeing any further improvement. The foundation of all our problems is Corruption. We were able to drive the British and free the Country. Will we be able to drive out corruption from our Nation? In order that our future generations live a better life, its now time for all to join hands and weed out corruption. Depending upon Government or any Organization is of no avail.
It is a pity that even after 65 years after getting independence, we are unable to come out from routine problems.As long as awarding civil work contracts to individual contractors continues, this problem may not get solved.Any road in Bangalore, within a day or two,after getting asphalted becomes useless to motorists due to bad quality of work by contractors, without any checking.Go to any junction, or circle, or road humps,or a signal there will be a pot hole. These pot holes makes movement of vehicles dead slow and the intention of civil contractors gets satisfied, as they would get subsequent contracts without any quality control method. Normally contract works will be awarded to some influential, political relationship, or where money can work.
A shame on our democratic system.
Please Email the Editor