City gets 3 cm rainfall

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Normal life was affected in the city on Tuesday due to incessant rains lashing the state capital since Monday night. The city received over 3 cm rainfall since last night. However, no significant inflows were recorded at Osmansagar, Himayatsagar, Manjira and Singur reservoirs. “If it continues to rain in the catchment of these reservoirs on Tuesday night, the water bodies will start receiving inflows from Wednesday evening,” said HMWS&SB director (transmission) Mr Visveswaraiah. The rains undid the patchwork done on the city roads ahead of the CoP-11. Motorists suffered due to bad roads as potholes were filled up with rain water and could not be spotted.

The routes to CoP-11 were also affected though the officials claimed otherwise. Some of the plants along the dividers were also washed away. At a few CoP-11 routes, the trees that were planted recently on the central medians got uprooted and fell on the road. Motorists complained that the GHMC had not repaired all the roads. Adding to the woes of motorists, rain water stagnated in the internal roads as drainage lines and manholes were choked with garbage. Due to shortage of bins, garbage was dumped on the ground and rain water carried it to the drainage lines, choking the flow. The only saving grace for the civic body was that it was a government holiday on account of Gandhi Jayanti and vehicular traffic was less on Tuesday.

Paddy, cotton crop damaged in heavy rains
Sources said that 15,000 hectares of paddy and 200 hectares of Cotton in the Godavari districts were submerged in the rains that wreaked havoc across the state. In West Godavari, almost 2,100 persons from 28 villages were evacuated to relief camps. In Bodhan town of Nizamabad, the body of a seven-year-old Ranadheer Singh was retrieved from the Sahrabhati canal. Life in Nizamabad and Kamareddy towns was paralysed as many low-lying areas were inundated.

While landslides were reported from some areas, fishermen in coastal areas were warned against venturing into the sea. Officials in Visakhapatnam claimed that the power consumption rate had come down by 20 to 30 per cent after the rains set in. The rains would also lead to resumption of hydel power generation, which had been halted due to insufficient rains. Normal life was disrupted in Khammam district with low-lying areas and both banks of the Munneru River being inundated. Cotton, paddy, chilli and other crops have suffered due to the rains here, while in Warangal, around 1,000 hectares of groundnut crop has been damaged as the district recorded the season’s highest rainfall of 41.8 mm on Tuesday.