Hyderabad: Normal life was thrown out of gear in several districts of Telangana on Monday with heavy rains pounding the State under the impact of Cyclone Gulab. Several low-lying areas were left under sheets of water and road connectivity between villages was snapped in some districts. Khammam, Warangal, Karimnagar and Nalgonda bore the brunt of heavy rains with the district administrations in these places on high alert.
The weatherman has forecast more rains in the State, extending the red alert to Tuesday for 14 districts and orange alert for seven districts. Heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy rain is very likely to occur at isolated places in Nirmal, Nizamabad, Jagitial, Rajanna Sircilla, Karimnagar, Peddapally, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Khammam, Mahabubabad, Warangal (Rural), Warangal (Urban), Jangaon, Siddipet, Kamareddy districts on Tuesday.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, who is in New Delhi, took stock of the situation along with Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar. He spoke to the Chief Secretary and directed him to take all necessary precautions to prevent loss of life or damage to property in the wake of the forecast of heavy rains in the next two days. The Chief Minister instructed Revenue, Police and other departments to work in coordination.
Later, Somesh Kumar held a teleconference with District Collectors and said if required, services of NDRF teams in Hyderabad, Kothagudem and Warangal should be utilised. Separate control rooms should be set up in every District Collector’s Office and information should be provided to the Secretariat control room, he said.
Meanwhile, the State’s average rainfall on Monday was 12.2 mm against the normal average rainfall of 2.7 mm. In the erstwhile Khammam district, normal life was hit hard as heavy rains lashed many parts since Sunday night. The highest rainfall of 151.5 mm was recorded at Bachodu, followed by 141.1 mm in Wyra, 113.8 mm in Mallampalli. Coal production was affected in Kothagudem.
Moderate to light rainfall was recorded in the erstwhile Karimnagar district. The highest of 46.5 mm rainfall was recorded in Marrigadda of Rajanna-Sircilla district followed by 44.8 mm in Malyalapalli and 44.3 mm in Manthani. Light to heavy rainfall lashed many parts of the erstwhile Warangal district from 8.30 am to late night on Monday. Chityal mandal of Jayashankar Bhupalpally district received 97.80 mm and Gori Kothapally village of Regonda mandal of the same district received 96.5 mm of rainfall.
Following heavy rains, reservoirs in both Krishna and Godavari Basins received steady inflows, prompting irrigation authorities to release water downstream. Priyadarshini Jurala project received 72,693 cusecs and 64,342 cusecs were released downstream by opening five gates. Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects received over 61,329 cusecs and 68,827 cusecs inflows respectively.
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