Heavy rain causes havoc; shops, houses inundated in Dharwad

Dharwad: Heavy rainfall, which lashed Dharwad city on Monday evening, brought in bountiful of woes to the residents and also some shop-owners.
The ongoing road widening work to facilitate BRTS added to the woes of people as water gushed into ditches and low-lying areas, making the movement of pedestrians and vehicles difficult at several places.

Rainwater gushed into the basement of the Shankar Plaza, opposite Kittel College at Pune-Bengaluru Road, causing huge loss to the shop owners. As many as 10 cars and scores of two-wheelers parked on the cellar were damaged. The owners of shops located in the cellar estimated the total loss at Rs 5 crore.

They said that they have been running business in the complex since 1995 and had seen heavy rains lashing the area several times. However, there had never been more than 3 inches of waterlogging. This time it created havoc as water gushed into the shops and several vehicles were submerged, they said. They blamed that due to the unscientific works taken up by the BRTS officials for the havoc.

Hotel Central Park owner Sunil Shetty, Girish Hegde of Hegde Xerox and others said that officials were informed about the unscientific works taken up by the contractor a few weeks back. However, the officials did not visit the spot, resulting in rainwater gushing entering Shankar Plaza from all sides.

Muddy water gushed into the commercial complex from Court Circle, Karnatak College and Jubilee Circle and almost 16 shops located here were flooded within a few minutes.

Photo copying machines, computers, printing machines, mobile phones, laptops, furniture were completely washed away in the rain.

A mega generator, which was to supply power to the entire complex, has been damaged. None of the BRTS officials visited the spot to conduct inspection, it was alleged.

A house and two compound walls have collapsed at Jananth Nagar near Toll Naka. Rainwater entered into the houses in low-lying areas in the same locality and people had a horrific time to drain out water.

On Tuesday, MLA Arvind Bellad inspected the affected areas and held meeting with people and shop-owners. He assured of bringing the matter to the notice of the government and arranging compensation.