HYDERABAD: The incessant heavy rains lashing Telangana have caused widespread damage to govt and private properties in the state, running into thousands of crores. The Congress govt has made a preliminary assessment and come to a conclusion that it will require over Rs 850 crore merely to repair damages and breaches caused to minor irrigation tanks, bunds, weirs, sluice, and canals alone.
Assessment of damages and loss caused to major irrigation projects, electricity supply and distribution network infrastructure, crops in lakhs of acres, state and national highways, bridges, culverts, and other govt and private properties is yet to be done. Officials said it will take time to assess the losses but indicated it might run into thousands of crores.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah separately spoke to chief minister A Revanth Reddy on the phone and enquired about the flood situation.
The CM briefed the PM about the expected losses due to heavy rains in the state and measures taken up by the govt to save lives. The PM and Shah assured the Centre's support in extending required assistance and relief, including helicopters, to the rain-affected areas.
The unrelenting heavy rains for the last two days have wreaked havoc, severely damaging electricity poles, power sub-stations, state and road highways, bridges, and culverts. The gravel under railway tracks in Mahabubabad, Khammam, and Warangal was washed away, and crops in lakhs of acres were submerged in flood water with fear of being washed away in many districts due to more heavy rain forecast in the next 24 hours.Union home minister Amit Shah despatched nine National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams to Telangana even as the CM put all the ministers, the chief secretary, DGP, heads and officials of all departments, and district collectors to carry out rescue, relief, and rehabilitation measures. The incessant rains have caused rivulets, streams, tanks, and other water bodies to overflow, cutting off rail and road links at several places in the state.
The state govt has also requested helicopters from the Indian Navy from its units in Visakhapatnam, Bengaluru, and other stations. The available NDRF and SDRF teams swung into action to rescue people stranded in floods in Khammam, Mahabubabad, Nalgonda, and Warangal, where the intensity of rainfall was rather heavy. Power supply was disrupted in several residential colonies in the state for hours together.
While the CM said "no leave" to the officials, the state govt declared a holiday for all the educational institutions in the state on Monday due to the forecast of heavy rains.
Already, the death toll due to heavy rains was nine at 7 pm on Sunday and was feared to increase. A control room with phone number 040-23454088 has been set up at the secretariat to monitor the situation.
The road link between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was cut off with hundreds of vehicles stranded on the national highway on either side of the bordering Kodad town between the two Telugu states due to flood water washing away roads and inundating low-lying bridges. Police diverted the traffic on other routes and appealed to the people not to come out unless there was a real emergency. An under-construction bridge collapsed on NH-44, causing traffic jams at Nizamabad. Vehicular traffic was stranded on several national and state highways, and cases of vehicles being washed away with people in them were reported from some places.
Several trains were cancelled and many more halted as the gravel below the railway tracks was washed away by the flood water in Mahabubabad, Khammam, and Warangal. At many other places, flood water was overflowing above the railway tracks, due to which train services were cancelled by the South Central Railway.
Nagarjunasagar left canal, Sita Rama project main canal, and several other tanks breached, leading to the inundation of crops in lakhs of acres. Water gushed into residential houses, commercial shops, godowns storing fertilisers, while low-lying bridges were inundated at various places in the state.
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