Says only 300 houses were inundated in recent rains

How is Bengaluru better than New York? It handles floods better, according to City Development Minister K.J. George.

Many parts of the city may still be recovering from the flood situation caused by the heavy downpour on Tuesday, but the Minister has said that it was “only a small proportion of the city” that was inconvenienced. In fact, he said Bengaluru is in a better position to handle floods than even “global cities” such as New York.

“Nearly 18 cm of rainfall was registered after the cloudburst on August 14. Around 300 houses were inundated, but this is a small proportion of the more than 20 lakh houses in the city... In other places, like Delhi, New York, Patna, this sort of rain causes widespread damage. Compared to other cities, Bengaluru is better,” claimed the Minister when asked about the criticism over the city’s preparedness to handle flood situations. He said the storm-water drains in the city had the capacity to handle only around 6 cm of rainfall, and heavy rain would lead to “some inconvenience.” “Out of 800 km of drains, work has been completed on 400 km. The rest will be done within two years,” said Mr. George.

Mr. George’s views were not well-received by many.

Parvathi, a resident of Koramangala 4th Block, one of the affected areas, said roads were still being cleaned. “The SWD is still full. Another major rain and we will go through it all again. Politicians are visiting the area but doing nothing else. They are not taking this seriously,” she said.

Asked about the National Green Tribunal pulling up the State government for doing little to rejuvenate Bellandur and Varthur lakes, Mr. George said: “We had not told the NGT that the froth is because of cloudburst. We only said that during heavy rain, the churning of water at the outlets is more and so there is more froth. We are looking for a solution, but the froth will reduce only when STPs are fully set up.”