A 43-year-old techie residing in his plush villa will be relocating to a nearby gated community as fear of flooding during monsoon looms large at the upscale Rainbow Drive Layout off Sarjapur Road. Karthik Krishnan has rented a house at Muthanallur cross on Sarjapur-Marathahalli road, to which he will be shifting his family on June 1 and will end up paying ₹1.2 lakh a month.
This is not an isolated instance of flood-driven displacement in the tech city. Many residents of Sri Sai Layout in Horamavu have also relocated to escape the deluge caused by the torrential rains.
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September 2022 flooding
It may be recalled that the 25-year-old RBD Layout spread across about 35 acres faced the worst flooding in September 2022, forcing the residents to travel on boats for a few days to work. The residents also hired tractors to ferry children to schools.
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However, after about eight months, the scenario has not changed despite Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) carrying out a few measures. The tussle between BBMP and the Residents Welfare Association (RWA) which has now entered the courts, has paused the works.
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Storm-water drain
Mr. Krishnan, who had bought the villa for ₹1.08 crore in 2010, has now rented another house for which he has to pay ₹1.2 lakh per month, including maintenance. While his house was partially flooded last year, a compound wall constructed by the RWA on the east side of the layout will increase the volume of the flood. He has now moved court against the RWA to raze the wall, which the BBMP has termed illegal. The BBMP, in February 2023, issued a notice to the RWA to raze the structure erected on a stormwater drain (SWD).