VIJAYAWADA: The sudden downpour that lashed Vijayawada and its outskirts left the Vijayawada international airport at Gannavaram with water reaching the lounge area and also stagnating on the runway. Airport officials maintained that the leaks were for a few minutes and were cleared within minutes and there was no delay or disruptions to flights.
Around 4 pm in the evening, a rainfall of seven cm lashed Gannavaram area for nearly 30 minutes and with the heavy downpour, rainwater made its way into the lounge areas of the airport. Speaking to TNIE, Airport Director G Madhusudan Rao said, “There was a heavy downpour around 4 pm and with the heavy flow of water, the water spread into some areas of the airport.”
When asked about the damage of the roof and runway position, Madhusudan Rao said, “There were gutters fixed in the roof for the flow of water. Those gutters can only handle about 1-2 cm of water flow. However as it is very heavy rain and due to heavy flow of water, through gutters, the water slightly leaked into the rooms with glass partitions.
There was some water in the runway too but it was also cleared at the earliest possible time.”He further said that the pilot of the Indigo flight which is coming from Delhi took ten minutes to land only because of bad weather conditions.