Overnight rains batter Hyderabad after lake breaches its level

Heavy rains on Saturday night left several localities of Hyderabad flooded, causing disruption to normal life.

Adding to the woes, the Balanagar lake breached flooding the nearby areas and vehicles were swept away as streets were flooded. Videos shared by people showed how their localities have been flooded.

Barely days after heavy rains leading to flooding, where at least 50 people were dead, this spell of rain last night has left the city stranded yet again. It all started in the evening on Saturday, when people were returning home from work and heavy downpour inundated major roads in the city and colonies causing disruption to normal life and movement. It took hours for people to reach home.

The rains earlier this week caused extensive damage and as per preliminary estimates property and infrastructure worth over Rs 5,000 crore was damaged.

Traffic on the road leading to airport from PVNR Expressway has was cut off due to flooding. The local DCP Prakash Reddy, informed“All public moving towards airport/Bangalore or coming from airport/Bangalore to city are advised to use outer ring road.”

According to IMD weather report, some parts of the city received about 15 cm to 17 cm of rain starting from last evening. And the weather forecast shows that the city is in for more rains over the next few days. The weather office predicted light to moderate rain or thunder showers are very likely to occur in some parts of the city on Sunday.

The personnel from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and various departments have been working round the clock clearing water stagnation and inundation. Teams from the Army and the National Disaster Response Force were deployed to evacuate stranded residents.

The India Meteorological Department has issued a rain alert till Wednesday in Hyderabad and said thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and heavy rain are ‘very likely’ across Telangana.

The rains and water logging triggered traffic snarls with people returning home stranded on the roads for hours last night. A worker returning home in the LB Nagar area was electrocuted last night when he was returning home from work.

Monitoring the developments and relief measures, KT Rama Rao, State Municipal Administration Minister, has directed officials and public representatives to distribute the Chief Minister relief kits with provisions and essential commodities sufficient for a month along with three blankets at the doorsteps in the rain-affected areas across the city.

Vishwajit Kampati, Director of Vigilance and Disaster Management of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, tweeted “Disaster Response Force (DRF) personnel of the civic body were continuously working on the field clearing water stagnation and inundation and all possible measures were being initiated in view of the rainfall.”