Bengaluru, 16 Oct

Rains continued to lash Bengaluru on Wednesday keeping the civic body and traffic personnel on their toes clearing stagnant waters and vehicular congestion from the City's affected areas.

Disaster response force personnel have been deployed in Bengaluru, where incessant rains flooded several areas on Tuesday. Unrelenting rain wiped out play on day one of the opening Test between India and New Zealand here on Wednesday.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said the government has the "strength" to manage the situation and "set right" the issues that have cropped up due to the rains.

The South Western Railway on Wednesday cancelled several trains due to waterlogging over tracks in the up fast line over Bridge number 114 between Basin Bridge Jn.(Chennai) and Vyasarpadi stations.

Personnel of the city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were constantly working to clear the waterlogged areas of the City. According to BBMP officials, waterlogging was also cleared at Silver county road near Haralur, Bommanahalli zone which led to smooth movement of vehicles.

"The BBMP also deployed two tractors to rescue residents of Kendriya Vihar apartment complex in Yelahanka, which was inundated with rain waters," an official said. The BBMP has set up 24X7 exclusive control rooms in its eight zones and also launched a helpline number (1533) to report rain-related problems.

Schools in Bengaluru Urban district remained shut on Wednesday, while many information technology, biotechnology and private companies permitted their employees to work from home, officials said.

Videos of inundated roads inside Manyata Tech Park, which houses several major tech companies, went viral on social media.

In one of the purported videos shared online, the cascade of water flowing down from a wall like a waterfall from the premises of the tech park caught the attention of social media users. In the last 24 hours till 8.30 am on Wednesday, Bengaluru city received 66.1 mm rainfall, officials said.

Bengaluru Metro services were briefly disrupted on the purple line due to "tree obstruction." However, the maintenance team cleared it.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast very heavy rain for Bengaluru and surrounding districts of coastal, north interior and south interior of Karnataka till 18 October. Overcast conditions are likely to continue in the city over the next three to four days. The IMD has forecast isolated heavy rain over Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Davangere and Tumakuru districts on Thursday.