Hyderabad :
Normal life was affected in several parts of Telangana on Thursday as torrential rains continued to batter the state for the second day, leading to inundation of low-lying areas and disruption of road links.
Reservoirs in the state received copious inflow and rivulets were in spate at various places following the downpour.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao held a meeting with officials to review the rain situation and directed them to be on alert and ensure that people living in low-lying areas do not face any hardships following the rains.
Wankidi in Kumram Bheem district received extremely heavy rainfall of 273.3 mm, while several other places in the districts of Kumram Bheem, Jagtial, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Warangal Rural and Kamareddy received very heavy rainfall (between 115.60 mm and 204.40 mm), official sources said, citing rainfall data upto 7 PM on Thursday.
Many places in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) received more than 14.5 mm of rain up to 6 PM on Thursday, they said.
Narsapur (G) and two other locations in Nirmal district received extremely heavy rainfall, while heavy rainfall occurred in many other places in Nirmal, Nizamabad, Adilabad districts from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning.
During the review meeting, the CM said rain-relief measures should be taken up immediately in Krishna and Godavari river catchment areas.
The CM instructed officials of all the departments to initiate precautionary measures as the weather department forecast heavy rainfall over the next two days in the state, an official release said.
He spoke to ministers and Collectors from Nizamabad and Adilabad districts over phone and gave instructions regarding the relief measures.
Rao also said senior officials should be ferried by Army choppers to concerned areas in Kothagudem, Eturu Nagaram and Mangampet, it said.
NDRF teams should be deployed in Armoor, Nirmal and Bhainsa areas immediately to evacuate people stranded in the low-lying areas, it quoted the CM as saying.
Directions were given to make arrangements for providing shelter, clothing and food to those affected.
Noting that very heavy rains occurred in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, he alerted officials to take steps in view of possible increase in water levels in the Krishna catchment areas.
Rao, who took stock of the situation in Hyderabad following the heavy showers, wanted measures to be taken to ensure safety of people living in low-lying areas.
He suggested setting up an effective ‘Flood Management Team’ comprising seven officers with experience in dealing with floods, the release said.
Rao also asked all the departments to be on alert as the weatherman predicted rainfall till August 10.
GHMC Mayor G Vijayalakshmi visited the rain-hit areas in the city today.
Meanwhile, Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director of Bharat Biotech, shared a video highlighting the immersed roads, on twitter.
She tagged Telangana IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao and senior officials in the tweet.
The Met Centre of IMD here warned that heavy to very heavy with extremely heavy rain would occur at isolated places in Adilabad, Kumram Bheem, Mancherial, Jagtial districts from 1900 hours of Thursday to 0830 hours of Friday.
It also said heavy to very heavy rains were very likely to occur at isolated places in Karimnagar, Peddapalli and other districts during the same period.
