Overnight rains wreck havoc in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Localised flooding in northern and eastern parts of Greater Hyderabad occurred due to continuous rains on Wednesday night and early hours of Thursday, and lakes failing to discharge inflowing rain water downstream.  Thanks to encroachment, several lakes, including Banda Cheruvu in East Anandbagh, overflowed. Heavy rains in Keesara and Shamirpet, the catchment area, pushed rainwater down to RK Puram lake, Safilguda lake and Banda Cheruvu. The nala which should be more than 10 metres wide has shrunk to two metres in Anandbagh and other areas of Malkajgiri and so failed to carry away the rain water.

GHMC Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy said there are always problems in urban areas when more than 15 centimetres of rain falls. “Any city drainage system is designed only to carry 2 cm of rain water. It was recommended 10 years ago to have nalas that were a minimum of nine metres wide, but it is hardly two metres wide. Keesara recorded 17 centimetres of rain. There are no gauges at Safilguda, RK Puram and Banda Cheruvu. Due to heavy rains these lakes overflowed, but there is no breach at any lake,” Mr Reddy said.  The rain water overflowing from lakes and nalas flooded colonies en route up to Uppal via Lalapeta and Nacharam.

The GHMC commissioner said that the “behavioural patterns” of people is also responsible for the flooding.  “Plastic bags, papers, garbage, damaged furniture, etc are thrown into the nala, and get stuck at the culvert, reducing the capacity. Bandla Cheruvu was once 102 acres in area; it has now shrunk to 39 acres due to encroachments. These floods are localised, restricted to Kapra, Malkajgiri and Uppal,” Mr Reddy said.  Superintending engineer of GHMC’s Disaster Management Cell, R Mohan Singh, said, “The nala was encroached and has shrunk to 1.8 metres at Patelnagar, NMDC Colony, Durganagar, Vasanthapuri areas.”

8 rescued from swollen Musi

Eight persons, including six from a family, who were stuck in the swollen Musi river in Valigonda mandal in Nalgonda district were rescued by NDRF teams on Thursday.  The victims had gone to a temple located in the middle of the river for special puja. Sources said S. Jahangir, a farmer from Redlapaka village in Valigonda mandal and his wife Lakshmamma, Jangulu, Alivelu, Venkatesham and a temple priest named Chari were rescued by NDRF.

On Thursday morning, they had gone to the Bhimalingam temple located in the middle of the river. Around 12 pm the river became swollen due to the rise in flow and they rushed to the temple roof. After a couple of hours they informed villagers over the phone and they informed the police. Revenue and police officials swung into action and soon NDRF teams arrived.  Meanwhile, two other persons from the fishermen community got stuck in the river and they took to the rocks for safety. They were also rescued.

Cops oversee rescue operations of the eight persons stuck in the Musi river in Valigonda mandal in Nalgonda district. (Photo: DC)

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Schools see low turnout, relax timings

Heavy rains on Thursday ensured a low attendance across schools in Telangana. With many water logged areas across the city, school buses found it difficult to navigate through the knee-deep water. Schools granted a leeway of one hour due to traffic congestion on roads.  Narasimha Reddy, the principal of Hyderabad Public School, said, “A lot of students and teachers suffered due to traffic jams. We relaxed the school timings to help the late comers. Students from Uppal Ring Road, Nagole and LB Nagar were hit hard.”

 

A few schools teachers were not able to come on time. Usha Reddy, principal of Meridian School, said, “We got calls from our teachers who stay beyond Gachibowli and who found it difficult to arrange transport. We asked them to come at their convenience.”  School buses had to divert their regular routes due to water-logging and traffic congestion.  “It took one hour to navigate the water logged-areas in Panjagutta,” said bus driver Wilson. , a school bus driver.  A few parents informed the drivers that they will not be sending in their children and this saved the time," said Wilson, a school bus driver.