Mysuru:  The Outer Ring Road (ORR) junction on KRS-Mysuru Main Road was the worst affected by monsoon shower that lashed city four days back.  

This junction,  also known as Royal Inn junction has literally turned out to be a mini lake by huge amount of stagnant water posing threat to life of motorists.

Residents of nearby junction and motorists passing through this important thoroughfare have been inconvenienced a lot while passing through the stagnant  rain water contaminated with sewage for over a week now.

The overflowing sewage water from Under Ground Drainage (UGD) line from Jayadevanagar Layout in Metagalli ward number 7 mixing with rain water from a clogged Storm Water drain on the ORR resulted in water getting stagnant near the Royal Inn Junction.    

Stagnant rain water near the junction is not only posing health hazard, but is hampering the movement of traffic throughout the day.   

The foul smell emanating from the stagnant water on one of busiest junctions where thousands of tourists pass through has invited wrath from the residents and motorists. The stagnant water has also become breeding ground for mosquitoes leading to mosquito menace.   

Heavy showers that lashed the city three days back has exposed the vulnerability of some of the city’s low-lying areas that led to several manholes in these localities overflowing.

Residents found that the underground Drain (UGD) network was overburdened owing to many residents directly connecting the roof drain pipes to the UGDs instead of letting them to the open drain channels running along the sides of the road.

Residents have also alleged that encroachment of drains and dumping of garment cloth wastes by a garments factory into the drain resulted in clogging.

Corporator  of ward number 7, Ramesh told Star of Mysore said that the localities falling in his ward suffered the most from overflowing manholes and drains.

He said that he immediately went to the spot after coming to know the problem, got the blockages removed from storm water drain and manholes using the machine and also got the garment waste cloth that dumped removed from clogged drain and solved the problem temporarily.      

“I received hundreds of such complaints from residents about blocked drains and overflowing manholes. Overflow of sewage water poses many health hazards” he said.

Pointing out that UGD pipes were designed only to handle sewage, he added, “If rainwater too is directed into the UGD pipes, the pipes cannot handle the strain, resulting in them overflowing. So, house owners must ensure these connections are removed, and connect pipes carrying rainwater to the roadside drains.

Ramesh also accused the civic officials of connecting the garment factory’s drain pipe to the residential UGD pipeline which is against the laws. He said that the civic authorities must give separate UGD line to the garment factory  and they must connect it to the main UGD pipeline on KRS Road. But this has not happened and this is resulting in severe problems during rainy season, he added.

Though instructions have been given to the garment factory to stop dumping waste into drains and to remove the same, the management has failed to look into such complaints, he accused.

Ramesh also alleged that the garment factory has encroached government land and constructed a five-storied building and  are carrying out their business after obtaining permission to run a software company.

The 7th and 8th  cross Jayadevanagar UGD line is also passing through the garment factory and  the management of the factory has also constructed compound walls on the drinking water pipeline passing through their factory, Ramesh said.   

He said large amount of drinking water was also wasting away from the damaged water pipeline, but the management has failed to fix the problem.

Ramesh said that he had brought the complaints to MCC Commissioner’s notice who has promised to solve them.