Bengaluru rains: Apartments' basements turn into 'grave' threat

The recent spell of heavy rains over Bengaluru left several residents in the lurch. Trees fell, vehicles were damaged and houses were flooded owing to the excessive water. This also posed a grave threat to several apartments with transformers in their basement. There were risks of electrocution and as a result, the building catching fire.

To prevent any mishaps, energy minister DK Shivakumar on Thursday, September 7, said that apartments and houses in Bengaluru will be issued notices to shift the transformers from basement to a higher floor, to avoid damage and power cuts due to water logging.

According to Bescom, nearly 50 buildings in HSR layout 6th stage and 40 buildings in Koramnagala 4th block get affected every year during rains, because these buildings have set up their transformers on the basement floor, which gets water logged in heavy rains.

In fact, residents of CV Raman Nagar, which has apartments beside a storm water drain, are constantly checking the level of water in the storm water drain to take precautionary measures to prevent flooding of their basements.

Shivakumar announced that Bescom will identify apartments and houses in low lying areas of the city first. "We will first identify such houses and apartments in low lying areas of the city. Then issue notices to the owners, requesting to shift the transformers and elevate them to a floor above the basement and give six months to do so. It will be done in a phased manner and we will ensure that all apartments and houses in Bengaluru conform to this.”

Transformers cannot be kept on ground level or basement as per High Court order earlier. Based on that Bescom specially designed elevated transformers platforms that can be used in apartments, reported the Times of India.

• Bengaluru rains
• Basement transformers
• DK Shivakumar