22 posh villas in Yelahanka flooded; developers to be issued notices

Anitha Krishnan, a resident of Northwood Villas, one of the upscale gated communities in Yelahanka, woke up in the wee hours of Sunday to see the water level in her posh villa rise as it was raining heavily outside. Residents of 22 villas in this community were unable to move out for more than 12 hours, the time the civic body took to drain out the flooded water from this community.

Anitha Krishnan, a resident of Northwood Villas, one of the upscale gated communities in Yelahanka, woke up in the wee hours of Sunday to see the water level in her posh villa rise as it was raining heavily outside. Residents of 22 villas in this community were unable to move out for more than 12 hours, the time the civic body took to drain out the flooded water from this community.

“It was a miracle that after 12 hours, the BBMP was able to drain out the flood water completely. Now, the civic body has kept pump sets on standby. These pump sets will be here until the BBMP lays a pipe to divert the water,” she said. 

Apart from Northwood Villas, Ramanashree Gardenia Layout nearby was also flooded. A senior BBMP official said the Northwood Villas were inundated as the stormwater drain was blocked so as not to let water into Puttenahalli Lake, which comes under the Forest Department. The developer of the private layout has also demolished part of the drain and sewage is also let in the same drain, the official said. “The volume of flooding was so high that it took the team 12 hours to pump the water out,” he said. 

BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath, who visited the area, said that the civic body will lay a pipeline to divert the water. “The water will be dumped on the other side of the Puttenahalli lake. As water is filled with sewage, the Forest Department will not agree to leave the water into the lake,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister (DCM) and Bengaluru Development Minister D.K. Shivakumar went on city rounds on Monday, visiting areas inundated due to recent rains, including Northwood Villas and Ramanashree Gardenia Layout. He directed civic officials to issue notices to developers of private layouts who have failed to provide basic amenities.  

“In some private layouts like these, the water entered the villas as the developers have not provided infrastructure for the rainwater to flow. Rainwater and sewage water are released in the same line, and this has resulted in overflowing. Not providing adequate civic infrastructure is the fault of the developers, and this is now causing inconvenience to the buyers of these villas in such layouts. Hence, notices will be issued to them to fix the problem,” he said. 

Mr. Shivakumar further said the civic body would immediately initiate action against those who encroached on drains in the layouts, which were flooded in the recent rain. After visiting Ramanashree Gardenia Layout at Yelahanka, he said that two years back, there was no SWD there, and the civic body, which had taken up work to build a drain there, stopped work midway. “I have now directed the officials to resume the work to extend the drain further,” he said.