Bengaluru: Flooding brought much of Bengaluru to a standstill Monday, following heavy, incessant showers. Rainwater gushed into homes in many parts of the city and also submerged the technology corridor around Manyata Tech Park as well as other locations, making them inaccessible.
The collapse of civic infrastructure in the ‘Silicon Valley of India’ has once again highlighted long-standing concerns over urban planning and design flaws, management gaps, the lack of accountability, and corruption, adversely affecting the 14 million Bengaluru residents.
However, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said Monday that Bengaluru did not have problems. “There are no problems…,” he told reporters in Vijayanagara, but added, “…and it is our responsibility to resolve any problems.”
Shivakumar made the remarks in Vijayanagara, where the Congress-led state government will celebrate their second year in office Tuesday. The event is still on, though Bengaluru, the primary growth driver in Karnataka, remains inundated.
Experts say urban centres in India face similar challenges. Unregulated growth due to rapid urbanisation leads to encroachment of natural waterways, valleys, and canals. With all outlets blocked, rainwater then stands, flooding roads and homes.
Bengaluru is no different, but some factors make the problem bigger. For instance, the Bengaluru city corporation, since September 2020, has not had an elected council. So, fixing accountability for problems has been difficult.
To assess the impact of the rains, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy toured Bengaluru city but did not seem prepared to deal with the situation. Deputy CM Shivakumar took umbrage at the non-stop rains and blamed his predecessors for the flooded streets of Bengaluru.
Later on Monday night, reacting to the outpouring of criticism on social media, Shivakumar said that the city administration had sorted out “70% of the problems”. “I am not saying that everything is sorted out. Though Bengaluru is not a planned city, we still have to do our job, and we will,” he told reporters.
Earlier in the day, Shivakumar, who holds the Bengaluru city development portfolio, said in a long X post that he remained “committed” to the city.
“Let us be clear: the issues we face today are not new. They have been ignored for years, across governments and administrations. The only difference now is – we are working to solve them. Not with temporary fixes, but with long-term, sustainable solutions…,” the Deputy CM wrote but without providing details.
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‘Not greater Bengaluru, it’s water Bengaluru’
Since Sunday night, Bengaluru has received 105.5 mm of rainfall in 24 hours, and weather authorities have issued a ‘yellow alert’ till Friday.
Seeing the conditions, BJP leader and Bangalore Central MP P.C. Mohan posted on X, “All companies in Bengaluru, including Infosys, must declare two days of work from home due to rains.”
Bengaluru residents have taken to social media platforms to voice their woes. “Problem & Solutions are known, but it takes will & funding (public & government) … The current stormwater drain network is inherited from legacy irrigation canals. They were not augmented to match the intense urbanisation that happened later, leading to stagnation,” Raj Bhagat, a geoanalyst at World Resources Institute India, posted on X.
Entrepreneur and founder of Biocon Ltd and Biocon Biologics Ltd also pointed out the issue of flooding though “monsoon is yet to arrive”.
Overnight rains and the condition of #Bengaluru roads when monsoon is yet to arrive. Fixing city's infra is a sore point & our city & its people don’t deserve this. @BBMPCOMM @BBMPAdmn @DKShivakumar @siddaramaiah @osd_cmkarnataka https://t.co/c0aj98YDA1
— Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (@kiranshaw) May 19, 2025
Over the past decades, the corporation has identified numerous “choke points” within the city. Significant financial resources, totalling hundreds of crores, have also been allocated in attempts to resolve these issues. These problems continue to recur annually, indicating that the underlying causes have, experts say, not been addressed fully.
The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka has also brought into effect the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024, expanding the size of the city but with provisions to form smaller city corporations for better and more efficient management. It is part of the larger plan for ‘Brand Bengaluru’ that, so far, has nothing to show for it.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the principal Opposition in Karnataka, poked fun at the Congress for the Act. “Greater Bengaluru has today become ‘Water Bengaluru’. Even a little rain causes the city to flood,” B.Y. Vijayendra, the Karnataka BJP president, said Monday. He also pulled up Shivakumar for announcing big-ticket projects, without solving the problems Bengaluru faces.
Shivakumar has had his way with projects such as building the North-South and East-West corridors or tunnels for an estimated Rs 40,000 crore. In its state budget, the government also more than doubled its grants to Bengaluru city from Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore, and allotted Rs 8,916 crore to construct 40.5 km of double-decker flyover, Rs 3,000 crore to expand the road network by another 300 km, and Rs 1,800 crore for 21 schemes to strengthen ‘Brand Bengaluru’.
As boats rescued residents stuck in submerged roads or homes Monday, the chief commissioner of Bengaluru city corporation and other officials travelled in tractors to inspect flood-prone localities.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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