Road breached due to floods in G Pedapudi: Road connectivity to four villages snapped
KAKINADA: A road connecting four villages near G Pedapudi of P Gannavaram mandal in the BR Konaseema district breached on Thursday due to rising water levels in River Godavari. Connectivity to the four villages -- Burugulanka, Udimudi Lanka, Arigelavaripeta and Pedapudi Lanka – has been lost as the roads were inundated.
District collector Himanshu Shukla arranged two boats for the transportation of the affected people. The people refuse to leave the villages for safe places during the floods and instead use boats for getting essential commodities to their homes from G Pedapudi.
Collector Shukla alerted the officials for taking disaster management steps in the affected areas. He asked the people to be on alert against the floods. Control rooms have been arranged at the collector’s office and Dowleswaram and the people can get the latest flood and rain-related information from there.
The collector said eight boats were readied at Baduguvani Lanka village of Alamuru mandal, Addanki Vari Lanka in Kapileswarapuram mandal, Kedari Lanka and Palepulanka in K Gangavaram mandal, Serilanka in Kotipalli and G Pedapudi in P Gannavaram mandal. Fisheries officials have been deployed to keep the boats functional.
Officials to be contacted are David Raju (9948029350) for Alamuru and K Gangavaram mandals and N Navya (9866443065) for Kapileswarapuram mandal, as also PDK Prasad (7095687724) and GG Babuji (9494957498). The people can call the control room numbers 1800425232 (toll free) and Dowleswaram (0883 2417066.
Meanwhile, the irrigation department discharged 6.48 lakh cusecs of water from Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram, which would flow into the sea after the lifting of the gates.
Shukla asked the officials to take up disaster management steps by taking into consideration last year’s floods. One volunteer for every 500 metres should observe the canal and Godavari Bunds and they should report to the mandal parishad development officers respectively about the situation of the bunds.
He advised the officials to raise the bunds at Nagullanka and L Gannavaram, Manepalli and Mondepu Lanka villages in P Gannavaram mandal and said there may be chances of overflowing of drains at Ambajipeta mandal.
He said that if River Godavari receives heavy inflows, the officers should undertake the evacuation of the people from low-lying areas by arranging 250 boats for the purpose and supplying quality food to the affected people.
