BENGALURU: Clutching her belly and fighting back panic, 28-year-old Nandini S sat stranded in a BMTC bus, surrounded by rising floodwaters. The vehicle, caught in a low-lying stretch near Bengaluru’s Central Silk Board Metro station, had been stuck for over half an hour. Nandini, returning home after a routine pregnancy check-up at Jayadeva Hospital, watched as water crept up the bus steps and her fellow passengers slowly gave up waiting, choosing to wade out instead.It was Monday morning, around 11am, when the 500-metre stretch in front of the Metro station — a bustling artery on any given day — became a stagnant pool of water and stranded vehicles. Water climbed up to the seventh pillar of the newly-constructed Metro structure, turning commute into a crisis for scores.The bus Nandini was travelling in had started its journey from Banashankari. By 11am, it was clear the road was no longer passable. Around 30 passengers were initially trapped, and for many, patience gave way to urgency. They stepped out, shoes in hand, bags lifted over heads, slogging through ankle-to-knee-deep water. Nandini, pregnant and alone, couldn’t follow. “I was getting scared the longer I waited in the bus,” Nandini said, her voice shaky even after rescue. “At first, everybody was still there but eventually people started leaving… I remained as I couldn’t walk such a long distance in this condition.”“There was water everywhere and the bus just came to a stop. Thankfully, an earthmover came to clear the water,” she said. That earthmover, part of a rescue operation led by BMRCL, became an unexpected lifeline. Even after the vehicle was moved from the waterlogged stretch, the bus doors had jammed shut because of water pressure, causing another tense 10-minute wait before Nandini could be helped out.Her eventual exit was aided by a fellow passenger who stayed back and later arranged for an autorickshaw to take her home. She was exhausted but safe.Across the Central Silk Board neighbourhood, many others fared no better. Residents reported night-long power outages and knee-deep flooding in nearby streets. Locals, already weary from earlier rain havoc, voiced fresh frustration at the civic body’s lack of preparedness — especially around a critical Metro hub undergoing expansion.“It’s the same story every year,” said a shopkeeper near the Metro station. “They’ve built this massive structure but the roads are flooded after just a few hours of rain. What’s the point?”— Sutapa DeyBOXFellow passenger takes chargeSashidhar, 29, support staffer at a homecare centre in the city, was among the passengers stranded on the same flooded BMTC bus. Originally from Ballari, he was en route from Jayadeva to his workplace in Electronics City when the bus came to a halt, delaying him by two hours.With no immediate help in sight, Sashidhar took charge. “There was panic all around. The driver called police, but people were getting late. So I opened the door, helped everyone get down one by one, and guided them to the junction so they could get home safely,” he said.He stayed back to assist Nandini, the pregnant passenger. “I told her not to panic. After the earthmover pulled the bus to a drier stretch, we managed to open the jammed door. I feel I was in the right place at the right time.”