PhonePe CEO gets real about Bengaluru’s flood problem: ‘You’re in the valley’

PhonePe founder Sameer Nigam at the CNN News18 townhall in Bengaluru

PhonePe CEO Sameer Nigam praised Bengaluru as a great city to run a business despite infrastructural issues like terrible traffic and regular flooding. Speaking at the CNN News18 townhall in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Nigam said that lack of drainage infrastructure and building on land claimed from water bodies has led to a worsening of the city’s flood problem.

Bengaluru receives heavy rainfall during the monsoon and is extremely susceptible to flooding for a few months every year. Sameer Nigam revealed that PhonePe’s Bellandur office in Bengaluru was watered in for about seven days last year.

He compared the city to Mumbai, which gets more rainfall, and said “it’s more on the fact that we are not able to get drainage, than on God. Rain happens.”

Another issue exacerbating the problem – one that Nigam said some of his friends might “kill” him for bringing up – is real estate expansion.

“There’s pockets in Bangalore where people advertise very very nice real estate projects – ‘lake side view on both sides’,” said Nigam.

“If you have a lake side view on both sides, you’re in the valley,” he said. “We need to get honest about what we’re getting into. If you know you’re right between two parts of a lake, somebody just claimed that land, you should never be there.”

Earlier in the interview, Nigam had elaborated on three aspects which made Bengaluru a great city for startups and young professionals.

Bengaluru is located on undulated terrain with continuous valleys. With no significant perennial water sources, the city has had to depend on interconnected lakes and rainwater harvesting to meet its water demand. Today, however, Bengaluru has lost many of its water bodies to urbanisation. Encroachment on lakes is considered one of the major reasons why Bengaluru is flooded so often.