After weeks of relentless heat, Bengaluru was slammed by a burst of squally thundershowers for over an hour on Wednesday. The Central Business District (CBD), the city's glitzy hub, bore the full fury of the storm. What began as much-needed relief quickly spiraled into chaos, once again exposing the city's deep vulnerability to extreme weather swings.
Barely minutes after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert for 'very heavy rainfall' at 5:15 PM, an intense downpour accompanied by hailstorms pounded the CBD. The situation worsened as gusts clocking 50 kmph uprooted trees and snapped hundreds of branches, bringing traffic to a standstill. Choked by a thick carpet of fallen leaves, dust, and debris, stormwater drains overflowed, inundating key stretches across the CBD. Ashok Nagar and areas around Kanteerava Stadium were blanketed in thick layers of hail for over half an hour.
The IMD reported that the city recorded 78 mm of rainfall in central zones, with significant showers in southern and eastern parts. Officials attributed the squally conditions and hailstorm to a trough, or wind discontinuity, extending from Rayalaseema to the Comorin region, passing over Karnataka at 0.9 km above mean sea level. Sources in the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) said heavy rain lashed MG Road, Ashok Nagar, Richmond Town, Ulsoor, Indiranagar, Koramangala, Chickpet, Chamarajapet, VV Puram, Banashankari, parts of JP Nagar, BTM Layout, and Bellandur, among other areas.
In minutes, roads around major commercial hubs turned into gushing streams, with water levels rising up to 2 to 3 feet. Overflowing drains aggravated flooding in low-lying areas. As the downpour continued, thousands of motorists, office-goers, and shoppers were left stranded. Vehicles broke down, and beneath pedestrian underpasses, peak-hour traffic limped along.
The abrupt transition from heatwave to heavy rain caught both residents and authorities off guard. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who visited Shivajinagar to assess the damage, admitted that the rainfall intensity had taken everyone by surprise. GBA Chief Commissioner Maheshwara Rao said special teams comprising engineers will be deployed to areas vulnerable to flooding. The IMD has forecast intermittent thundershowers with wind speeds of 30-40 kmph in the next 48 hours, raising concerns of further disruption in an already battered city.
25,000 Distress Calls as City Goes Dark
The helpline of the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) — 1912 — was inundated with thousands of distress calls reporting outages, tree falls, uprooted poles, cable snapping, and transformer blasts following the evening downpour. Large parts of the CBD and several southern localities were plunged into darkness for hours. The impact on electrical infrastructure was severe. An incoming power line of the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL) sustained significant damage, leading to a sharp dip in Bengaluru's power demand by nearly 300 MW — from 6,900 MW to 6,600 MW — reflecting the scale of outages.
Sources in Bescom told TOI that between 4 PM and 8:30 PM, the helpline received almost 25,000 calls. Of these, nearly 18,000 calls were abandoned due to long wait times. Only 6,869 calls were successfully logged and attended to, with 6,607 of them registered as complaints. The storm uprooted more than 50 electric poles, and 200 others were damaged due to falling trees and branches. Close to 100 instances of tree fall were reported, snapping transmission lines in multiple localities. In addition, rainwater inundated several electrical installations, damaging at least 17 transformers across the city.
Bescom officials said all divisional engineers and field personnel were pressed into service, working on a war footing alongside GBA teams to clear fallen trees and restore electricity. The city remains on alert as more thundershowers are expected in the coming days.
