New master plan, task force on storm water drains to free Bengaluru from flooding

Master plan to focus on linking city’s storm water drain network with river Cauvery

In a bid to find a long-term solution to flooding in Bengaluru, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday announced that a master plan with an end-to-end approach would be evolved, not only to manage the existing storm-water drains and build new ones, but also link them with the Cauvery through Dakshina Pinakini.

Replying to a debate in the Legislative Assembly on the recent floods in Bengaluru owing to heavy rains, the Chief Minister said the proposed master plan would take into account the survey and study reports by Institutions, such as the IISc., on storm-water drains in Bengaluru.

The BBMP, the BMRDA, and the BDA would be involved in preparation of the master plan, he said, while indicating that aspects related to storm-water drains in the earlier master plan would be redrawn.

He explained that that Bengaluru’s drainage system was distributed over three concentric circles. While the inner circle located in high elevation had well-developed storm-water drains as it belonged to core part of the city, the middle circle that comprised city municipal councils, which were added in 2006, had the problem of encroachments, underdeveloped and narrow storm-water drains in some stretches.

The outer circle comprising 110 villages that were recently added to Bengaluru needed infrastructural upgrade as storm-water drains were yet to be built in this zone, he said.

However, there was a need to look beyond the outer circle comprising these villages by linking the storm-water drains there that carry the entire city’s water with the Cauvery if the city needs a permanent solution from flooding during heavy rains, he observed.

The Chief Minister also announced constitution of a special task force comprising experts to monitor maintenance of storm-water drains in the core areas of the city, development and widening of storm-water drains in the middle circle represented by the earlier city municipal councils and building new storm-water drains in the peripheral areas besides linking the entire drainage system with Cauvery river.