Toll mounts to 29; 72,000 evacuated
Hyderabad: Hundreds of villages across Andhra Pradesh remained submerged while road and rail was disrupted by the rain fury which continued to unleash misery for the fifth day on Saturday, leaving 21 people dead.
River Krishna was in spate after which 3.15 lakh cusecs of water was being discharged into Bay of Bengal from Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada.
Floodwater from Peddacheruvu at Kattangur in Nalgonda was overflowing on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad National Highway due to which vehicular traffic was diverted at Suryapet towards Bhuvanagiri and Khammam.
Railway track at Bommayipalli on the Secunderabad-Guntur section was damaged and repairs were being carried out. All important trains on this route are being diverted via Warangal and Vijayawada, official sources said.
Roads in different districts along a streth of 900 kilometers were totally battered due to heavy rains in the last five days, throwing traffic out of gear. As many as 117 minor irrigation tanks were damaged in the rain-ravaged districts while tens of village tanks suffered breaches inundating villages and crops.
The East Coast Railway has cancelled Bhubaneswar-Bengaluru Prasanthi Express and Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam Express trains due to heavy rains. The Puri-Tirupati Express and Coromandel Express were also cancelled, the sources said.
Officials in Disaster Management Department here said the 135 relief camps opened in seven districts were continuing where about 68,000 persons had been evacuated from their homes. Twelve teams of National Disaster Response Force are carrying out relief operations in Srikakulam, Guntur, Nalgonda, Prakasam, Mahbubnagar and West Godavari districts, the sources added.
South Eastern Railway sources here said that due to water logging at Tikiapara and Howrah yards, some local trains were cancelled. Some EMU locals were short-terminated, the sources said. In view of heavy rainfall in the state, SER has tightened safety measures in the running trains, sources said.
Emergency Controls have been opened in all the four Divisions–Kharagpur, Adra, Chakradharpur and Ranchi. Sources also said that in view of heavy rains and floods in coastal Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, movement of south-bound trains was hampered.
A number of trains including 12703 Howrah-Secundrabad Falaknuma Express, 12245 Howrah –Yesvantpur Duronto Express, 02851 Santragachi-Kochuveli Weekly Puja Special and 08041 Santragachi- Chennai AC Superfast Weekly Puja Special have been cancelled today, sources said.
All the South bound trains were being diverted via Jharsuguda-Bilaspur-Nagpur route or via Jharsuguda-Sambalpur-Titlagarh route, the sources said. Met office sources here said that weather was likely to improve from Sunday.
A South Eastern Railway source said special patrol teams are inspecting sensitive locations – that is bridges, cuttings and are monitoring rising water levels or any other issue involving train safety.
Strict vigil is being kept by the Railway personnel at sensitive areas where there are water bodies near the track and rising water levels are being monitored, it added.
In East Godavari district, over two thousand people were shifted to relief camps. “2,575 persons have been shifted to 15 relief camps in the district. They are being provided food, drinking water and other facilities. We are taking all necessary steps to prevent the human loss and damage to properties,” East Godavari District Collector Neetu Kumari Prasad said.
Heavy rains have affected around 33,568 hectares of crops in the district, she said. Kadapa District Collector K Sasidhar said that heavy rains caused huge losses to the agriculture in the district, with 1,660 hectares of paddy and 5,183 hectares of cotton crop getting damaged. (PTI)