TIRUPATI/KADAPA/ NELLORE: Incessant heavy rain - caused by the depression in the Bay of Bengal across the Tamil Nadu coast - battering the Chittoor, Kadapa and Nellore districts since Sunday morning, threw normal life out of gear in all the three districts on Monday.
All rivers, rivulets and canals in the three districts were in spate on Monday and thousands of lakes, tanks and other water bodies were overflowing. The rivers in spate included Swarnamukhi and Kalangi in Chittoor district, Gunjaneru (a rivulet near Railway Kodur) in Kadapa district and Pennar in the Nellore district. The flooded streams in Chittoor district included Pamula, Nagulakaluva, and Manjari.
The rain badly affected Tirupati, Tirumala, Srikahasti, Puttur and Nagari towns and several villages in Buchinaidu Kandriga, Varadaiahpalem, Thottambedu, KVB Puram, Narayanavanam, Pichatur and Satyavedu mandals of eastern Chittoor in Chittoor district, several villages and towns in Railway Kodur and Rajampet mandals in Kadapa district and several villages in Degapudi, Veerampalle, Gudali and Podalakuru mandals in Nellore district.
In Tirupati, while the rain water inundated several low-lying areas such as Subhash Nagar, Lakshmi Puram, Chandrasekhar Reddy Collony, Madhava Nagar and Kranthi Nagar, many under-bridges were under 5 ft of water. The traffic on the Tirupati-Tirumala Ghat Roads came to a grinding halt. Road repair works on the Second Ghat Road at the spots which were recently hit by landslides, had to be abandoned.
In nearby Srikalahasti, the overflowing water from the flooded Swarnakmukhi river entered several houses in the low lying areas, causing untold misery to the residents, and also the famous Srikalahasti temple. The water from the Swarnamukhi river was also overflowed on the road at Mukkoti in Chandragiri mandal in the district disrupting vehiclular traffic. Around 1,600 people were evacuated to safer places.
Meanwhile, irrigation projects in the district received heavy inflow of water. While the Araniar Medium Irrigation Project, built on River Aruna in Pichatur mandal, received an inflow of 1,400 mcft, the Krishnapuram project in Karvetinagaram mandal received an inflow of 199.39 mcft of water pegged at 1800 cusecs and the Swarnamukhi anicut received an inflow of 37,850 cusecs.
Several tanks breached and inundated nearby villages, leading to submergence of Tirupati-Railway Kodur highway, BN Kandriga-Satyavedu road and Yerpedu-Venkatagiri highway.
Several tanks and canals in Chittoor district were also overflowing with water. The Amudala Tank in Palasamudram mandal was breached and the overflowing water from the tank flooded around 10 villages. Koppedu Canal in Nindra mandal was also in spate. Around 2,000 tanks against total 5,463 were totally filled with rain water and another 2,000 tanks were filled three-fourth and the remaining 1,463 tanks were filled half , according to Chittoor District Irrigation Department SE R Sriramakrihsna.
The flood gates were lifted and water was released at 17 minor irrigation projects in the district, he said and added that two flood gates of the Kalangi reservoir were washed away in the flood water. Four villages were inundated by the flood water from the Kalangi reservoir, he further said.
Collector Siddharth Jain announced red alert across the district for the next four days and appointed district officials as special observers to monitor the situation. District Education Officer K Samuel announced holiday for schools and other educational institutions on Tuesday.
District CPO Ch Bhaskar Sarma said that the Bay depression effect would continue for the next two days.
Meanwhile, the Railway Kodur and Rajampet constituencies in Kadapa district were badly impacted by the heavy rain which continued on the second day on Monday. All the tanks and rivulets were brimming with rain water. Around 100 houses were inundated with flood water from the Gunjaneru rivulet near Railway Kodur. Around 20 houses were washed away in the flood water in the area. As many as 50 mandals in the district received heavy rain since Sunday -- Railway Kodur received the highest rainfall of 17 cm in the district.
The traffic between Railway Kodur and Chitveli came to a halt as 10 ft of water was overflowing on the Gunjaneru bridge in Railway Kodur town. Policheruvu and Chakramadugu Cheruvu near Rajampet town were overflowing. A woman was drowned in Maditadu tank in Sundupalle mandal of the district.
In Nellore district, with the downpour continuing on Monday, several tanks were breached -- most of them in the Gudur division - leading to disruption of vehicular traffic to several villages.
Meanwhile, with the Meteorological Department predicting that heavy rain would continue for another four days, the district administration has set up relief camps to shift the affected people from in low lying areas.
The district administration is expecting heavy inflows into the Somasila Reservoir following heavy rainfall in the upstream areas of the river.
In Nellore city, areas like Babu Jagjeevan Ram Colony, Padarupalli, Baktavatchala Nagar and Vengala Rao Nagar turned as canals and in some places people were seen swimming in the water. Traffic was disrupted in areas like Gandhi Statue, VRC and Stone House Pet, while the main RTC Bus Stand was inundated with four feet water.
Naidu Tells NDRF to be Prepared for Rescue Work
Vijayawada: Taking stock of the havoc caused by the heavy rain lashing the southern districts of Nellore, Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool, Anantapur and Prakasam under the influence of depression in Bay of Bengal, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has directed the officials concerned to extend necessary help to the people on a war-footing. Addressing the collectors of the six districts through a video conference from Vijayawada on Monday, the chief minister directed NDRF personnel to be on standby for rescue and relief operations in rain-affected areas. He asked the collectors to take measures to ensure that tanks are not breached and to take up repairs on a priority in case they breached. He wanted a special officer to be posted at the water bodies to monitor the situation. He enquired about the flood situation in Chittoor district where minor rivers and streams are in spate. Kalinga and Krishnapuram reservoirs are filled beyond capacity. For the first time in the last 15 years, all the water bodies in Tirumala, including Akasa Ganga, Gogarbham, Kalyani are full. Heavy inflows of flood water to Somasila Reservoir were reported. The CM asked the officials to enumerate the losses at the earliest. Naidu was informed that streams and rivers in Kadapa are in spate and the road connectivity between Railway Kodur in Kadapa district and Tirupati has been cut off. Officials were asked to take up measures for immediate restoration of road connectivity. Naidu opined that the rain will help the standing crops in Prakasam and Anantapur districts.