Rains and traffic snarls go hand-in-hand in Bengaluru, but Friday was exceptionally bad. The heavy rains that lashed many parts of the city from afternoon slowed down vehicular movement and inundated roads. By evening, the traffic snarls got worse what with many people heading out of the city for the long weekend.
As the intensity of the rains increased, the control rooms of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Fire and Emergency Services were flooded with complaints.
Many citizens took to social media platforms to complain about poor civic infrastructure and traffic jams.
Amit Vats, who was to take a flight to New Delhi, tweeted at 9 p.m., tagging the airline, that though he left home at 6 p.m., he was yet to reach Kempegowda International Airport.
Jagdish R., who lives in K.R. Puram, said, “It took me two hours to cover 8km from Swamy Vivekananda Road metro station to KR Puram. The jam was mainly due to private and public transport long-distance buses waiting to pick up passengers. The rains made it worse."
Traffic jams and waterlogged roads resulted in low availability of taxis and autorickshaws. According to a tweet by Manas Ranjan Mishra, the fare for a journey that normally costs him around ₹250 by cab was being quoted at ₹588 by autorickshaw and ₹1,249 by cab.
Traffic jams were reported on several stretches of the Outer Ring Road, Tumakuru Road, Doddanekkundi flyover, Veerasandra junction, Dr. Rajkumar Road, Hebbal, Bannerghatta Road near Gottigere, CMR Road in HRBR Layout, and Bhadrappa Layout.
The fire control room received complaints about water logging from Whitefield, Arakere, Doddanekkundi, Banaswadi, Begur, Nagappa Reddy Layout, Kodichikkanahalli and a few surrounding areas where rainwater had entered homes and flooded the basements of a few apartment complexes.
BBMP Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar said the State government had put the National Disaster Response Force on standby following prediction of heavy rains. He added that BBMP and fire service teams were pumping out water in H.S.R. Layout, Begur, Hongasandra and Mangammanapalya, apart from clearing fallen branches and uprooted trees.
Mayor M. Goutham Kumar manned the control room in the BBMP head office and later visited the control room in the West zone. He directed all officials to respond to any eventuality.
