Hyderabad: Heavy rains continued to lash Hyderabad city and other districts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for the third consecutive day, disrupting normal life.
The continuous heavy rains since Monday have wreaked havoc in the city leaving many areas submerged, causing extensive damage to the roads and disrupting power supply in many areas. Three people were electrocuted in Khammam district.
While roads and junctions turned into pools of water at some places, fallen trees also added to the chaos.
Traffic snarled in many areas including Begumpet, Lakdi Ka Pul and Secunderabad.
Such was the fury of the rains that the Hussain Sagar Lake had filled to capacity and authorities were forced to open its flood gates.
Officials sounded an alert in the lower areas. The lake was receiving 860 cusecs of water and outflow was 2100 cusecs, officials said.
It is the first time that the lake has filled so early in the season.
The flood gates of the Talliperu project in Bhadradari were also opened.
The rains also caused extensive damage in other districts.
Many rivulets were in spate in the two states. Munneru river was in spate in Mahabubabad and Khammam.
The river Godavari was rising in Bhadrachalam due to the heavy inflows.
With the Met office issuing a warning of more heavy rains under the influence of a vigorous southwest Monsoon, and a well marked low pressure northwest of the Bay of Bengal, administrations in both the Telugu states were on high alert.
The weather department has said more heavy rains are likely in the cities of Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and other parts north of Andhra Pradesh.
Visakhapatnam’s Cyclone Warning Centre has also warned that strong surface winds from a westerly direction, with a speed of 55 kilometres per hour, were likely along the AP coast. The heavy rains over the last two days have brought down the deficit of rainfall drastically. In Hyderabad, the deficit came down from 29 per cent to 14 per cent.
But the roads suffered extensive damage across the city.
Rains and water logging left potholes and turns the roads into a pile of sand and gravel causing immense difficulties to the commuters. With vehicles moving at snails pace there were traffic jams everywhere.
“Travelling in these battered roads is nothing less than an adventure. It has become a back breaking experience,” said Janardhan Reddy, a software engineer who had to spend double the time in travelling to Hitec City from his home in Ameerpet.
So far the city has recorded 115mm of rains against normal average rainfall of 180mm.
In Andhra Pradesh rains left the buildings in makeshift secretariat in the under development capital Amaravati leaking.
