Pumpwell Bale, Bolla Thule? Ten Years to Build Flyover & Only Couple of Rains to Create Floods

Pumpwell Bale, Pumpwell Bhale, Bolla Thule?(Come to Pumpwell, See The Floods/) Ten Years To Build Pumpwell Flyover & Only A Couple of Rains To Create Floods Instead of SMART CITY, it’s wise to change the name to ‘FLOAT CITY?’ Our City had the same havoc of flooding it saw a few years ago, and we are seeing it again now

Mangaluru: We saw it a couple of years ago during the monsoon season, and we are seeing it again during the start of the Monsoon season- and the sad part is that recurring artificial flooding in the city mocks the administration’s claims of having learnt lessons from past incidents. The service road towards Nanthoor Junction from Pumpwell Junction and Pumpwell towards Yekkur side is flooded due to lack of drainage at the flyover construction site following heavy rain which lashed the city.

The recurrence of artificial floods on a bunch of newly constructed roads in the City, even though new drainage was built only showed that the MCC and Mangaluru Smart City Limited (MSCL) have done nothing for the smooth drainage of rainwater. Due to the heavy downpour, waterlogging was seen in several places, including the service roads and the main road near Pumpwell Flyover. Apart from this area, many other roads in the City were submerged in rainwater, causing inconvenience to motorists and pedestrians. Motorists were seen wading through the flooded road underneath the Pumpwell Flyover, and many had a tough time getting through it during the peak hours. Flooding has forced people to wade through knee-deep water.

As if the corporation’s contributions were not enough, the National Highways Authority of India too contributed its bit during the heavy rain. Loose soil and jelly stones near Pumpwell washed away and flooded basements of nearby apartment complexes. The administration, having learnt lessons from the deluge during past years’ rains, has not been able to address flooding problems across the city as and when they occurred. Having not cleared silt in major storm-water drains around many parts of the City saw drains overflowing creating floods. Looking at the flooding situation in the City is a clear example of how the development and infrastructure had been undertaken by MSCL and MCC, and also PWD. Crores of Rupees spent on restructure of drainage, seems like the hard-earned money of taxpayers has gone down the “Drain”, when we look at the water overflowing from these newly constructed drainages, thereby flooding the City, and making the life of motorists and commuters miserable.

The unscientific and bad planning of the Drainage work undertaken by the Engineers and Contractors of the MCC/MSCL/PWD-which led to the City float? No doubt, “Smart City” turned out to be a “Floating City”? So the question every citizen asks is “What good is it to have these new drainage systems when the water is still overflowing onto the streets, and flooding them”. The first thing our MCC/MSCL officials will do is blame National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials for negligence in their work which resulted in water flooding the city near Kankanady Pumpwell but never give a proper answer for all the flooding that takes place in other main parts of the City-because they all know that the flooding was due to the shabby and incomplete work of the so-called “Engineers”, and also the contractors.

But does anyone in MCC care for the losses, after all, it is taxpayers’ money that was used and wasted away. Before the rain, MCC should have cleaned all the drainage, and removed the wastage, so that water could flow smoothly. But it looks like that was not done. When the new roads are done neither the NHAI nor PWD officials provide any alternatives/local amenities like proper footpaths/drainage, Pedestrian crossings, over-bridges, Safety Signs etc. because they think that’s not their job, nor do they care about people’s safety.

Engineers, contractors and all those who were responsible for the shabby development work should be taken to task. But that’s not happening, because everyone is hand in hand, with ONLY one thing in mind, such as how to make money- or call it “CORRUPT?”. Blame games should be stopped also. Citizens should regret electing leaders like these, who don’t care. MLAs/Leaders boast about development, but what development are they talking about?”. Our Engineers are only good at constructing “Mega Circles” and “Widened/Broad Footpaths” (the new concept of MSCL?) -you know what I mean? That’s not development- and that’s not smart either, Mangaluru being named as “Smart City”.

So in conclusion, even as many parts of the city reeled under heavy floods due to torrential downpours on account of depression over the Arabian Sea, people are still fighting to come to terms with the loss of property, people and other things due to flood-like situation, chances are that shortly they have to face another critical situation, because monsoon has just started, and still there are few more months of bad rainy weather the City may get lashed with. But have the concerned authorities rectified the faulty development issues or have they taken any preventive measures in seeing that the City won’t experience the same havoc of flooding it saw a couple of years ago?