The recent spate of heavy rains, especially on Sunday, not only threw life out of gear for thousands of citizens, but also left its mark on the city’s already crumbling infrastructure. According to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) estimates, the city has suffered infrastructure loss of around ₹1,158 crore owing to the excess rains in October and November.
Following heavy rains late on Sunday, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, on Tuesday, said that 10 km of main roads and 20 km of other roads had been damaged in Yelahanka assembly constituency, while 45 km of roads had been damaged in Byatarayanapura constituency.
Areas coming under both these constituencies were most affected by the rains.
BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said that heavy rains had battered almost all parts of the city. The civic body, he said, had so far utilised its own funds for taking up restoration, repairs of the infrastructure, apart from providing relief to families affected by the rains. “We have sought funds from the Government as well to take up restoration works across the city,” he added.
Thulasi Maddineni, BBMP’s Special Commissioner (Finance), told The Hindu that as per initial estimates, the extent of loss to major roads is ₹98 crore and ward roads is ₹600 crore. The other major damage caused by drains is to the storm water drain network. This is estimated at ₹410 crore.
“Drains in most of the areas that were flooded or waterlogged needed urgent repairs or strengthening. The civic body has also sought ₹50 crore for the transportation of waste to the processing plants, which had become difficult owing to the heavy downpour in outer areas of the city,” she said.
Ms. Thulasi said the civic body had given out compensation amounting to ₹75 lakh to families whose homes were inundated following heavy rains in October in Rajarajeshwarinagar zone and around ₹95 lakh in the West zone. These funds had been disbursed to the Zonal Joint Commissioners directly for disbursal to the affected families.
“Each affected house is given ₹10,000 compensation, as specified under the National Disaster Management Authority’s norms. This is disbursed only after a spot inspection and verification by the jurisdictional revenue officials,” she said.
She added that on Friday, it was also decided to sanction ₹25 lakh per zone to take up any emergency rain-related work or give out compensation to the affected families. This was after the Meteorological Department had forecast heavy rains during the weekend.
