Tirupati: Even after there was a let-up in heavy rainfall, several low-lying areas in Tirupati city, its suburbs and several parts of Chittoor and Nellore districts remained inundated on Monday. The threat to safety loomed large in the form of leakages to Rayala Cheruvu tank amid heavy inflows.
The tank currently has water stored almost double of its normal maximum. If the 500-year-old minor irrigation tank breached, the destruction could be severe, district officials said.
Special officer Pradyumna, district collector Harinarayana and Tirupati SP VA Naidu were involved in overseeing steps to avoid breaches to Rayala Cheruvu.
Nearly 15,000 people from across 18 villages and hundreds of habitations in and around Rayala Cheruvu tank have been evacuated and moved to relief camps. NDRF and SDRF teams along with police personnel and firefighters have been placed on standby.
Following instructions from chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy to elected representatives and ministers to reach-out to the flood-affected victims, Panchayat raj minister Peddireddy, government whip Chevireddy and others inspected Rayala Cheruvu on Monday. The minister said they have consulted experts from IIT-Chennai and sought urgent steps to prevent a breach to the tank.
Meanwhile, even as the inflows to Somasila reduced, a few villages across River Penna in Nellore district were still inundated. In flood-hit Kovur town, many colonies were still in floodwaters. A road between Devarapalem-Jonnawada was washed away in Nellore rural due to the flow of floodwater.
As a result, vehicular movement was disrupted for almost three days. The situation remained abnormal at Gollakandukuru, Vellanti, South Mopuru, Mulumudi, Kommarapudi, Devarapalem and Pottepalem areas in Nellore rural and Buchireddypalem mandals.
Somasila project has been receiving 1.07 lakh cusecs of water while 97,512 cusecs of water is being released downstream.
The temple of Goddess Kamakshi in Nellore was completely damaged due to floods while the Navagraha Mandapam and Kalyana Mandapam have vanished amid the release of water from the Somasila project.
Meanwhile, the pilgrim turnout remained low in Tirumala. A few thousands reached Tirupati, which remained cut-off from several directions in terms of road and rail connectivity. TTD additional executive officer A.V Dharma Reddy said the temple body will make alternative darshan and stay arrangements for devotees who made advance reservations but could not visit the temple town between November 18 and 30 due to the floods.
“TTD will launch a special software which will help devotees with advance darshan and stay reservations who missed out in completing their pilgrimage to Tirumala between November 18-30 to book their darshan and stay arrangements any time within the next six months,” he said.
