An inundated Outer Ring Road (ORR) and Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway will perhaps be one of the defining images of 2022 as the city drowned in record rains along with civic and political apathy.
Downpour in the last week of August and first week of September brought Bengaluru, especially the IT corridor and the adjoining areas from east Bengaluru along the ORR to south-east Bengaluru, to a standstill. Various parts of the city were flooded and nothing was spared — tech parks, posh layouts, offices, major roads and houses.
The city not just made headlines on rain related damage, but also broke a 75-year old record. On September 4, according to the India Meteorological Department, the city received 131.6 mm of rainfall. This, according to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), was the third heaviest spell in the city for a 24-hour period in September in the past 75 years.
A file photo of inundated Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Bengaluru on August 30, 2022.
Lakes breached
Bengaluru, home to hundreds of lakes — both alive and dead — also saw many lakes, including the Bellandur lake, breach, affecting areas around while also exposing the illegal encroachments of lakes in the city, resulting in a series of anti-encroachment drives of Storm Water Drains (SWDs).
The BBMP said a total of 162 lakes were filled to the brim, of which 126 breached this year after rain. Various experts and even residents’ welfare groups alleged that the sudden flooding was a result of the civic body’s mismanagement which led to the encroachment of lakes and the SWDs. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai also blamed illegal encroachments in the south-east zone as the reason for flooding.
A study showed that in 1800, the city’s water bodies had a cumulative capacity to hold 35 tmcft of water. The average rainfall the city receives today is estimated to be around 15 tmcft of water and this year, it was only marginally higher. However, if most of the city’s lakes are overflowing and there are floods, it only means their holding capacity has dwindled severely.
SWD neglected
To clear the encroachments of SWDs, the Chief Minister allocated ₹300 crore and also allocated ₹1500 crore for clearing out the stagnant water.
For decades, the BBMP has been in the process of remodelling the SWD network. According to BBMP data, nearly 428 km of the city’s 842-km network of SWDs has been remodelled.
BBMP’s mismanagement
The areas which were flooded this year were mostly villages included to the city limits in 2007, which were at that time governed by gram panchayats and town municipalities and could not catch up with the development boom of the IT industry and continued to be mismanaged under BBMP limits.
The IT boom saw tech parks and office spaces come up in the south east zone, which made real estate companies start building residential projects and shopping malls to cater to those working here. But, the authorities concerned failed to plan the development in this region and didn’t come up with any regulation and lakes and SWD were eventually misused by a nexus of realtors and politicians, experts point out.
The city’s water supply was also stopped for a day after heavy rains in Mandya district flooded the pumping stations of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which supplies Cauvery water to Bengaluru.
Anti-encroachment drive
Days after rain reduced in the city, the BBMP started to act against the illegal encroachments of SWD and lake by using bulldozers. For a few days, the drive did happen, but stopped reportedly on the pretext of resurvey and stay orders brought by the building owners.
BBMP identified encroachments in top tech parks, apartments, posh residential gated layouts and educational institutions. The civic body conducted a drive against these properties and gradually stopped the drive.
According to BBMP data submitted by Mahadevapura zone — one of the most densely developed areas over the last two decades and the worst hit by floods this year — it had 1,689 encroachments of SWDs in 2016-17, the highest for any zone by a large margin when the clearance drive began. Now, the Mahadevapura zone has only 133 encroachments left, and the rest have been cleared over the years, according to BBMP.
The BBMP in October said that they have identified 504 encroachments, excluding around 67 instances of encroachments in which the alleged encroachers have approached various courts.
Single-day losses
IT firms and banking establishments in the ORR area claimed to have incurred a loss of ₹225 crore owing to the heavy rains and flooding on August 30, said Outer Ring Road Companies’ Association (ORRCA) in a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
Seeking Mr. Bommai’s attention to address the “appalling infrastructure” in the ORR region in particular and the city in general, ORRCA said half a million professionals were employed along the ORR region between Central Silk Board and KR Puram corridor.
Published - December 18, 2022 09:12 pm IST
