VIJAYAWADA: Incessant rains that have been lashing the city since Wednesday night have thrown normal life out of gear on Thursday. Many parts were flooded by noon, forcing Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) to deploy squads to clear water-logging. Motorists faced a tough time traversing on the Eluru Road stretch between Chuttugunta and Seetharampuram due to overflowing drains and the KT Road stretch between Panja Centre and KBN College in Kothapet. Many major roads such as Pinnamaneni Polyclinic Road, Jammichettu Centre, Sunabbattila Centre, Krishna Lanka, Maruthi Nagar, One Town, Vidyadharapuram, Kabela Centre and the slopes on either side of the tunnel witnessed knee-deep rainwater. At Srinagar Colony, a tree got uprooted damaging two autos.
In various parts of Krishna district, Vatsavai received maximum rainfall of 93.8 mm and the lowest rainfall of 12.8 mm was reported from Nagayalanka. At Dammuluru village, Veerulapadu mandal, a stream from Vyra and Kataleru overflowed on the road with floodwater, disrupting vehicular movement. Nandigama DSP Nageswara Reddy reached the spot and cautioned people of low-lying areas to relocate to safer locations. He asked the farmers not to visit their fields and cattle rearers to avoid visiting lakes and canals as they were overflowing following floods in Telangana.
A control room has set up at Machilipatnam to monitor the rains and flood situation in the Krishna district. Collector J Nivas said the public can contact the control room telephone Nos. 99086-64635/08672-252572, in case any difficulty. He added that instructions have been given to deploy the staff round-the-clock at the control room to assist the public.
Meanwhile, rural SP Vishal Gunni directed the police to be vigilant to prevent untoward incidents at lakes, bridges and to assist the people. The district received a rainfall of 25.99 mm on Thursday, the lowest in the past six days. While 35 mandals received a rainfall of above 20mm, Karempudi recorded the highest 64mm of rainfall.
GMC commissioner Ch Anuradha interacted with officials about the arrangements being taken following rainfall. She said equipment to drain out stagnant rainwater should be readied and traffic should be regulated shortly. A tree was uprooted near the Women’s College area in Guntur and a girl was injured. The police have shifted her to the hospital, and cleared the traffic in the area. As the rains may continue for three more days, the officials instructed the people to be on the alert.