Heavy rains wreak havoc in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Heavy overnight rains here threw normal life out of gear and parts of the city were flooded while a compound wall of the Metro Rail collapsed and cars parked close by came under mounds of rubble, officials said on Thursday.

Waterlogging, incidents of tree fall, damage to civic infrastructure and power outage were reported from various areas and the 70 mm rainfall brought parts of the city to its knees.

Over a month after the flooding on September 7, the city once again received heavy downpour affecting most the areas.

The worst effect of the rain was seen at Seshadripuram where the compound wall of the Metro Rail collapsed damaging seven cars and a few bikes. No one was present when the wall came down crashing.

One of the car owners demanded that the government compensate for the loss alleging that shoddy work led to the wall collapse.

Shivajinagar resembled a river and cars and bikes were seen floating in water. People struggled hard to save their belongings.

At HSR Layout, nearly 200 families were affected when water gushed into their houses including the basements of a few apartments.

Anugraha Layout in Bilekahalli was badly affected as the entire colony was waterlogged.

The road in front of Disha Centra in Balagere in Varthur ward resembled a river even 12 hours after the rain.

According to Jagadish Reddy, a resident of the area, the basement of many apartments in the area was flooded submerging many vehicles after the downpour.

The Outer Ring Road, which was badly hit a month ago due to heavy rains remained unaffected, an office-bearer of the Outer Ring Road Companies' Association told PTI.

A BBMP official said the anti-encroachment drive taken up by the civic agency minimised the damage this time.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast a few spells of rain or thundershowers, heavy at times is very likely during the next 24 hours.

The city has been receiving rain for the last few days.

The deluge last month had caused havoc leading to large-scale destruction to properties in the city and several offices had asked its employees to work from home. Hosur, about 40 kms from here in Tamil Nadu also witnessed heavy rains last night leading to inundation.