Bengaluru rain: First shower cripples infrastructure in the city; citizens furious at BBMP

Bengaluru's first rainfall of 2025 exposes civic issues, including waterlogging, tree-falls, power cuts, and traffic congestion.

The first rainfall of the year on Saturday (March 22, 2025) exposed the chinks in Bengaluru’s civic armour as several roads were waterlogged and drains overflowed along with incidents of tree-fall, including the one which killed a three-year-old girl, and power cuts reported in many areas. 

According to the data from India Meteorological Department (IMD), Bengaluru City received 11.8 mm rainfall while Bengaluru KIAL station recorded 38.6 mm rainfall with thunderstorm on Saturday.  

The effect of rain spilled over to Sunday (March 23) morning too, as fallen trees obstructed traffic movement in areas like Koramangala and J.C. Road. On J. C. Road, the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) cleared the tree from the road to restore traffic movement. There was also some waterlogging at the Central Silk Board bus stop. 

The data from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) shows that a total of 25 trees and 75 branches fell on March 22 across eight zones. In Yelahanka zone which received up to 50 mm rainfall, there were 12 fallen trees with 40 fallen branches.  

Further, there was waterlogging at many important roads of the city, including the airport road which faced severe traffic congestion affecting travellers. Kogilu Cross, Ramamurthy Nagar, Kasturi Nagar, K.R. Puram, Outer Ring Road, Hebbal and Veerannapalya are some of the areas where severe waterlogging was observed. A few subways in the city were also inundated, including Kodigehalli. 

Despite a gap of several months before the last rain of 2024 and the first rain of this year, citizens questioned why the BBMP was still under-prepared to handle the rainfall in the city. As the BBMP got into action on Sunday morning, clearing shoulder drains, a social media user said, “BBMP should have been ready. These small steps could have brought bigger differences.” 

Replying to a post about BTP staff clearing the drains on Hebbal flyover, another social media user said, “BBMP should have done this in January – February. But they never do this at all.”