Bengaluru: Rains that continued to lash Bengaluru on Friday morning threw life out of gear. Flooding, overflowing of drainage, uprooting of trees and wall collapses were reported from across the city.

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike control rooms were inundated by distress calls from citizens.

The worst affected were many areas in Bommanahalli zone. Following the breach of a lake, Kodichikkanahalli, Bilekahalli and surrounding areas were flooded, forcing the ground floor residents to move to the upper floors early on Friday morning.

The Fire and Emergency Service personnel were pressed into service on Friday morning. The personnel rescued several stranded residents using ferries.

Uprooting of more than 30 trees were reported from Rajkumar Road, Basavanagudi, Ragigudda, Jayanagar 9th Cross.

Meanwhile, commuters, who had braced for traffic snarls due to inundation of major arterial roads from the past three days, probably woke up to their worst nightmare on Friday morning.

Incessant rains and lake breach inundated all major arterial roads to the extent that there was water up to three feet on many of these roads on Friday morning.

No major arterial road was an exception. Old Madras Road, Hosur Road, Outer Ring Road, Bannerghatta Road and Ballari Road faced traffic jams and witnessed bumper to bumper traffic as crucial junctions on these roads were waterlogged.

Veerasandra Junction, the NICE Road junction below Electronics City flyover on Hosur Main Road was inundated since morning, throwing the entire traffic on the crucial IT corridor out of gear. Two fire tenders were pitched to pump out water from the junction and was cleared for traffic at 11 am. Till then peak hour traffic on the Hosur Road had come to a stand still, disrupting commute patterns in the area.

One of the worst-hit roads seems to be Bannerghatta Road where areas off the critical arterial road have seen inundation due to lake breaches. The Bilekahalli junction on the road is inundated as well bringing the traffic to a standstill.

The K.R. Puram–Tin Factory junction and the down ramp to Old Madras Road from K.R. Puram flyover has been packed for many hours now, as work is still ongoing at the Tin Factory junction to clear the stagnant water. This disrupted traffic towards the IT corridor and Whitefield again.

Salem Railway Under Bridge (RUB) that had been posing a serious hurdle for traffic on ORR since Tuesday continues to remain a concern, as it still remains inundated disrupting traffic flow on the crucial ORR. Traffic on this part of the ORR has almost come to a standstill and diversion into the adjoining areas has also led to traffic snarls in residential areas.

Not just these outer areas, many roads within the core city like Richmond Road, Platform Road near Mantri Mall, Pottery Road have also seen inundation leading to slow moving traffic.

R. Hitendra, Additional Commissioner of police (Traffic), said that the incessant rains and inundation of crucial arterial roads had put the traffic in the city out of gears. “We, along with Fire and Emergency Services, have been trying to remove water from these inundated roads clearing them for traffic. But even after clearing water, we observe that the waterlogging has created large potholes and bad road stretches which have drastically brought down the traffic speeds on the city’s roads in the last one week,” he said.