Telangana to restore British era musical flood alert system in Osman Sagar

Hyderabad: As Telangana officials scrambled to save lives and property amid the recent flood and heavy rain, one senior official in Hyderabad literally stumbled upon a melodious musical flood warning system which went mute at a reservoir.

“Came across this very interesting flood warning instrument at Osman Sagar yesterday (Friday),” said Telangana municipal administration principal secretary Arvind Kumar on Saturday about an old gramophone.

Kumar said the gramophone plays music to alert when flood water levels reach the danger mark in the reservoir, which was built about a century ago and provides drinking water to Hyderabad city.

“The gramophone plays once the water level is reaching the danger mark. Each line on the gramophone record represents the actual water level,” said the senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.

Considering its current mute state, he promised to get it repaired as soon as possible.

Mounted on a pedestal, the musical instrument was made of multiple metallic discs and a couple of cylinders.

Another picture shared by Kumar revealed components brought from England during the British rule to build the Osman Sagar dam.

The component makers’ identity read: ‘Musi Valley Project, Gandipet. Ransomes & Rapier Ltd, Ipswich, 1914, England’.

On Friday, the senior official visited Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar to review their water levels as inflows rushed in due to heavy downpour.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao dispatched Kumar to check their water levels.