HANAMKONDA/WARANGAL: As Cyclone Montha made landfall on Wednesday, the tri-cities of Warangal, Hanamkonda, and Kazipet experienced severe rains on the intervening night of October 29 and 30. Several low-lying areas were flooded and daily life disrupted.
Residents alleged that the GWMC authorities had failed to clear the drain lines and nala's in the tri-cities' limits. Roads turned into streams as floodwater overflowed from the drainages in the Kazipet-Hanamkonda-Warangal cities.
Warangal West MLA Naini Rajender Reddy inspected flood-affected areas close to the Nayimnagar stormwater drain, one of the major nalas in the city, the overflowing of which caused flooding.
Later, he visited Sammaiah Nala under the KU 100-feet road and interacted with the people who are facing problems due to the flooding. He assured the residents that proper stormwater drainage will be constructed in flood-affected areas.
He directed the officials to supply essential commodities to the families affected by floods and remove the encroachments on the nalas in the city. He appealed to the residents to cooperate with the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) and the district administration.
Warangal is the second-largest city in Telangana state after Hyderabad. The GWMC covers the 66 wards, and there is an absence of an underground drainage system; several areas and colonies under the GWMC limits are witnessing open drainage water stagnation. An existing drainage system has completely failed during the heavy rains that lashed the cities.
As a result, the rainwater reached low-lying areas like Vivekananda Colony, Sai Ganesh Colony, SR Nagar, and Lakshmi Ganapati Colony in Kasibugga; NTR Nagar, Sainagar Colony, Shivanagar, Underbridge, Karimabad, Gandhi Nagar, Balaji Nagar, Shanthi Nagar, Ursu Gutta, Indiramma Nagar in Warangal; and Ambedkar Nagar, Gopalpur, Vivek Nagar, Pragathi Nagar, Sammaiah Nagar, Amravathi Nagar in Hanamkonda areas.
Residents were shifted to the rehabilitation centres in the Hanamkonda and Warangal cities. A few people are lifting the floodwater into the buckets and other machinery pumps they are using to clean their houses.
GWMC Commissioner Chahat Bajpai inspected the low-lying areas under the Tri-Cities limits on Thursday morning. She appealed to the residents of the low-lying areas to shift to the rehabilitation centres. The residents were agreed and shifted to the rehabilitation centres.
She instructed the employees to take precautionary measures to clear the floodwater in their respective areas. The officials should be alert to identify the partially damaged houses and vacate the houses and shift to the rehabilitation centre in the city limits.
Speaking to TNIE, GWMC Commissioner Chahat Bajpai stated that a total of 3000 people shifted to the thirteen rehabilitation centres under the Hanamkonda and Warangal limits. The Special Disaster Response Force (SDRF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and multiple teams are inspecting and shifting the people to the rehabilitation centres.
The engineer wing teams have already deployed in the wards for taking measures of diversion of the floodwater in the low-lying areas.
We are providing the food and drinking water to the rehabilitation centres. The medical teams were also deployed at the rehabilitation centres, said Chahat Bajpai.
She further stated that the GWMC officials have taken up demolition of illegal constructions on nala's to free the flow of the floodwater in the low-lying areas under the Tri-cities Warangal-Hanamkonda-Kazipet limits, she said.
