By Sara D Benedicta Josna-  

Bengaluru: Residents of a colony called Rainbow Drive layout in Sarjapur of Bangalore, hired a tractor to ferry their children to main road where the school buses were waiting to pick their children, as the streets of their colony was flooded.

With Bangalore experiencing unusual rainfall over the past few days, several low-lying areas were flooded. Rainbow Drive Layout in Bangalore’s Sarjapur was affected by the downpour and the streets were flooded with knee length of water. Tired of waiting for the civic authorities to interfere, the residents decided to arrange for a tractor to ferry them to school and office, as their vehicles were stuck in basement which were flooded. The layout which consisted of more than 300 houses, was cut off from help for over 72 hours due to the flooding. One of the residents said that the water waist-deep for the children and were afraid of the snakes that were lying in the murky water.

On Thursday August 4, the residents of Rainbow Drive Layout took out a ‘RastaRoko ‘at Sarjapur road to alert the authoritiesabout the disgraceful situation in their layout. They highlighted how they struggled to send their children to schools in tractors instead of their personal vehicles and blamed the authorities fortheir negligence. “Although it has stopped raining now, we are still struggling to drain out the water. The tractor has been in service since 7 a.m. The 3 feet deep water has only reduced by a foot”.

KV Trilok Chandra, BBMP Special Commissioner (Mahadevapura) said that the flooding was caused at Rainbow Drive Layout due to enrichment of stormwater drains. All lakes in Bangalore are interconnected by a network of storm water drains that carry excess water from lakes in higher elevations to ones in lower elevations. Since the layout is situated in a low-laying location, it is very crucial to find an alternative for Stormwater drainage in Sarjapur Main Road or add another outlet.

One of the residents said that the flooding is occurring probably because the nearby has not been desilted for the last few years. And the lakes capacity may have reduced its capacity as regular people dump their garbage there.

The residents had written a letter to the MLA Aravind Limbavali, informing him about the hardships the residents were experiencing during the rains. As a response, Tushar Guru Nath, the chief commissioner of the BBMP, had instructed the concerned authorities to desilt the drains and make sure that the outlets leading to the roads were clear so that the water doesn’t remain stagnant on the streets.

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