TIRUPATI: Untimely rain lashed the temple town for the second consecutive day on Wednesday bringing disrupting normal life.
Rain, accompanied by strong wind, uprooted several trees and electricity poles in some parts of the town. Some hoardings too collapsed. Low-lying areas were inundated due to the downpour. Meanwhile, lightning strikes in the surroundings of the airport, during the heavy rain on Tuesday evening, caused damage to the ground cables of the radar system. This resulted in the diversion of the Hyderabad to Tirupati Spice Jet flight scheduled make landing at Tirupati airport at 8.30 am, to Chennai. After doing some rounds over the airport, the plane flew to Chennai with the Tirupati airport officials not giving it permission to land due to technical reasons.
When contacted, airport director VV Rao said the thunder storm on Tuesday caused damage to the radar. “However, engineers rectified the problem. Except the diversion of the Spice Jet flight, there was not other disruption of operations,” he added.