Telangana: Irrigation Dept bears the brunt of floods

The rain ravage is considered to be the highest ever. It owed mainly to the flash floods that are unusual for places where they were experienced since Thursday

Hyderabad: Even as the State is still grappling with floods that left a trail of destruction in several districts, the administration has shouldered the task of assessing the losses. The rain ravage is considered to be the highest ever. It owed mainly to the flash floods that are unusual for places where they were experienced since Thursday.

The department-wise enumeration has already commenced in the affected districts.

---

Official teams are reaching out to affected pockets as the flood levels recede. The canal network of the Irrigation department as well as the road communication network has borne the brunt of the ravage. So is the case with crops in areas where in early sowing were reported.

An expert team tasked with the dam safety and rehabilitation (DSR) will visit the Kaddam project shortly. The team, which comprises of some officials retired from the Central Water Commission, will take stock of the safety aspects of the project and recommend measures for rehabilitation. Two of the 18 flood gates of the projects had operational problems in a crucial hour.

The DSR team hired by the State government will visit the Sriramsagar Project also. The project continued to receive heavy inflows on Friday. The inflows are in the order of 2.58 lakh cusecs in SRSP, 45000 cusecs in Nizamsagar, 1.04 lakh cusecs in Kaddam project and 9.07 lakh cusecs in Sripada Yellampalli project.

Similarly, over 13.37 lakh cusecs of inflow is being received in Lakshmi Barrage, 10.37 lakh cusecs in Saraswati barrage and 9.17 lakh cusecs in Parvathi Barrage. At Sammakka barrage (Tupakulagudem), the inflows continued to be over 14.15 lakh cusecs as against 11.08 lakh cusecs at Dummugudem.

Godavari flood flow at Bhadrachalam was over 11.19 lakh cusecs. The third warning has been issued as it crossed the danger mark of 53 feet on Friday evening. As per the flood forecast, it is likely to rise up to 58 feet at the temple town anytime tonight. District officials, who have been put by the State government on high alert, have started evacuation of people from low-lying areas. The special measures that are to be taken after the flood level touching 60 feet as per the flood manual, are already initiated as part of the precautionary exercise. NDRF teams as well as the army helicopters have been kept stand by.

380 damages for Irrigation Dept

Irrigation Engineer–in-Chief (Operations and Maintenance) Nagendra Rao said 380 damages were reported in the Irrigation department. As many as 155 of them were breaches to irrigation tanks and canal systems. Mulugu district had the highest number of damages. In Nizamabad and Adilabad too, extensive damage was reported.

Restoration works will be started immediately.