After witnessing their neighbourhood lake froth, and then mysteriously catch fire, on Tuesday residents around Yemlur side of Bellandur lake had to deal with the water body overflowing onto nearby roads.
While the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) blamed the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for the mess, the BBMP chose to blame the topography of the city that sees “low-lying” Bellandur receiving excess water.
Having accumulated water from heavy rains over the past two weeks, lake water spilled over to Wind Tunnel Road and the roads connecting to it behind the HAL Airport. The road is used as thoroughfare to reach Panathur and Balagere near Varthur.
The reason, says the BDA, is the blockage of an outlet of the lake by the BBMP which is constructing a bridge across one of the weirs.
“They had blocked the weir entirely to construct a bridge. With the heavy rains seen in the city in the past few days, the water load on one outlet was too much. We had advised the BBMP to remove the blockage,” said Shivashankar, Superintendent Engineer, BDA.
BBMP Chief Engineer (Storm Water Drains) H.C. Anantaswamy said the sandbags that had been used to block the drains have been removed. “Since it is a low-lying area, water accumulates in the valley after the rains. With the removal of the bags, water should recede in a couple of days,” he said.
