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Rains in Andhra pitch rail traffic into chaos
Even as the weather office has warned of more moderate to heavy rains in coastal Andhra and Telangana regions of Andhra Pradesh under the influence of continuing low pressure in West-Central Bay of Bengal and vigorous monsoon, the rains over the last two days has badly-hit the rail traffic on Kazipet-Vijaywada section and nearly a dozen trains had to be cancelled and many more trains were diverted. At least four persons were washed away in floods in Warangal district.
Hundreds of small rivulets were also in spate in the districts of Warangal, Khamma and Krishna and for the first time in this rain season 42 gates of Prakasham Barrage had to be opened. As the rivulets were in floods and inflow had reached 1.09 lakh cusecs, authorities were releasing 1 lakh cusecs water from the Barrage. Such a heavy discharge of water, most of which will go waste in to sea, was taking place even without the release of water from upstream Nagarjuna Sagar.
It has dramatically altered the situation in Krishna delta where the farmers and the political parties were up in arms against the Government demanding the release of water from Nagarjuna Sagar.
The train service was badly-hit as the flood waters washed away a section of tracks between Madugu-Garla stations of South Central Railway forcing the authorities to cancel several trains including Secunderabad-Vijaywada Satavahana express and Kazipet-Vijaywada passenger, Visakhapatanam-Secunderabad Garib Rath and Duranto express trains.
In Khammam district nearly hundred villages were also cut off as the rivulets were in spate. In many places in Khammam and Warangal district, roads were washed away or submerged in flood waters.
Meanwhile, water levels in Srisailam project was also increasing with every hour as 53,000 cusecs water was being discharged from Tungabhadra dam in Karnataka. According to the latest reports, the water level in Srisailam had reached 842.2 feet against the maximum level of 885 feet. But the situation was till not satisfactory as against the total capacity of 263.634 tmc ft, the dam had only 101.0350 tmc ft of water at present.
Similarly, in Nagarjuna Sagar the level was 519.9 feet against the maximum level of 590 feet and the water was 131.5 tmc ft against the gross capacity of 312.045 tmc feet.
Authorities have started releasing about 3,500 cusecs of water form Srisailam to Nagarjuna Sagar in view of the increasing inflows. As the upstream projects on river Krishna - Almatti and Narayanpur in Karnataka and Jurala in Andhra Pradesh were full to the capacity, the inflows in to Srisaialam were expected to increase further.
Even as the weather office has warned of more moderate to heavy rains in coastal Andhra and Telangana regions of Andhra Pradesh under the influence of continuing low pressure in West-Central Bay of Bengal and vigorous monsoon, the rains over the last two days has badly-hit the rail traffic on Kazipet-Vijaywada section and nearly a dozen trains had to be cancelled and many more trains were diverted. At least four persons were washed away in floods in Warangal district.
Hundreds of small rivulets were also in spate in the districts of Warangal, Khamma and Krishna and for the first time in this rain season 42 gates of Prakasham Barrage had to be opened. As the rivulets were in floods and inflow had reached 1.09 lakh cusecs, authorities were releasing 1 lakh cusecs water from the Barrage. Such a heavy discharge of water, most of which will go waste in to sea, was taking place even without the release of water from upstream Nagarjuna Sagar.
It has dramatically altered the situation in Krishna delta where the farmers and the political parties were up in arms against the Government demanding the release of water from Nagarjuna Sagar.
The train service was badly-hit as the flood waters washed away a section of tracks between Madugu-Garla stations of South Central Railway forcing the authorities to cancel several trains including Secunderabad-Vijaywada Satavahana express and Kazipet-Vijaywada passenger, Visakhapatanam-Secunderabad Garib Rath and Duranto express trains.
In Khammam district nearly hundred villages were also cut off as the rivulets were in spate. In many places in Khammam and Warangal district, roads were washed away or submerged in flood waters.
Meanwhile, water levels in Srisailam project was also increasing with every hour as 53,000 cusecs water was being discharged from Tungabhadra dam in Karnataka. According to the latest reports, the water level in Srisailam had reached 842.2 feet against the maximum level of 885 feet. But the situation was till not satisfactory as against the total capacity of 263.634 tmc ft, the dam had only 101.0350 tmc ft of water at present.
Similarly, in Nagarjuna Sagar the level was 519.9 feet against the maximum level of 590 feet and the water was 131.5 tmc ft against the gross capacity of 312.045 tmc feet.
Authorities have started releasing about 3,500 cusecs of water form Srisailam to Nagarjuna Sagar in view of the increasing inflows. As the upstream projects on river Krishna - Almatti and Narayanpur in Karnataka and Jurala in Andhra Pradesh were full to the capacity, the inflows in to Srisaialam were expected to increase further.
