Cyclone Nivar: Rain alert in Bengaluru for a week

Bengaluru, Nov 25: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert to South Interior Karnataka districts on November 25 and 26 since the depression over southeast Bay of Bengal is set to form into a cyclone, Nivar, which is expected to make landfall between Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry coast on November 25.

Over the next three days, Bengaluru can expect thundershowers accompanied by gusty wind, IMD said.

According to IMD, heavy rainfall of up to 115.5 mm are forecast for Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural, among other districts.

However, G S Srinivasa Reddy, former director and currently consultant at the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, says the impact of the cyclone may not be as intense as expected.

"The city can handle up to 70mm rainfall per hour. Between 70mm and 100mm there is a likelihood of overflow of of stormwater drains in certain parts of the city," says BBMP chief engineer Prahlad.

BBMP teams are alert across the city and all trash has been cleaned from and desilting of the storm water drains have been done.

"Cyclonic rains are low intesity long spell rains, they should not pose much of a threat. But if you run into any troubles in your locality one can reach out to the BBMP through the control rooms," he adds.

Central control room - 2222 1188; ward wise control room numbers are available online.