Rain unrelenting in Telangana, rivers swell

Crest gates of Sriramsagar lifted to discharge flood from spillway; grievance redressal day suspended in districts

HYDERABAD

Heavy rains continued to lash several parts of Telangana for the third consecutive day on Sunday, disrupting normal life even as several streams, rivulets and rivers were in spate. Heavy inflows into the Sriramsagar project prompted the authorities to take up flood discharge by lifting nine spillway gates around 7 p.m.

The State government has announced closure of all educational institutions till university level from July 11 to 13, with forecast of heavier rains under the influence of cyclonic and south-west monsoon impact for the next three to four days. In the wake of heavy downpour, administrations of all districts have suspended Prajavani, the grievance redressal day on Mondays, so that the authorities can immerse themselves completely in relief work, wherever the need arises.

Incessant rains have also forced the authorities to postpone the ‘Kakatiya Vaibhava Saptaham’ celebrations. They have been instructed to stay put in their headquarters so that they could attend to any emergency in the wake of heavy rains. The highest of 181 mm rain was recorded at Kollur in Mancherial district from 8.30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday while 12 other places received 100 mm to 148 mm during the same time period.

According to information reaching here, road link between Jagtial and Dharamapuri was cut off following flood water overflowing the bridge at Anantaram. Those travelling from Jagtial to Hyderabad have been advised to take the route via Karimnagar as flood water was overflowing on the Sircilla bypass road at Shatrajupalli.

With heavy rains not only in the States but also in the upstream areas of Krishna and Godavari basins in Maharashtra and Karnataka, all the projects in the Godavari basin in Telangana and the Krishna basin projects in Maharashtra and Karnataka are getting heavy inflows, owing to heavy to very heavy rains in Mahabaleshwar and adjoining areas, the origin places and major catchment areas of Krishna and many of its major tributaries.

The Krishna Basin projects in Telangana-Andhra Pradesh are also expected to start getting inflows over the next few days as the storage of Almatti and Tungabhadra projects is fast inching towards surplus stage. On Sunday evening, the storage of Tungabhadra was around 85 tmcft against its capacity of 100.86 tmcft with inflow of over 91,200 cusecs. On the other hand, the storage of Almatti was over 81 tmcft against its capacity of 129.72 tmcft with inflow of 75,100 cusecs.