Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

Flights continue to be affected

Staff Reporter

Gnanapuram and other low-lying areas escape inundation

VISAKHAPATNAM: Life in city was normal despite heavy rain and wind that it had been experiencing for the last 48 hours due the deep depression.

Except for some air passengers who were inconvenienced due to non operation of a few flights, there was no major untoward incidence. Except for Sahara, all the other operators like Indian, Kingfisher, Paramount and Air Deccan could operate a flight each out of their daily schedule of two or three flights.

A reputed travel agent was visibly upset about the air operations. He said: “What is the use of setting up the ILS if it cannot be operated in such conditions. Minister of State for Mines T. Subbarami Reddy quoted a couple of days ago that everything was in place and the ILS was in operational condition but the authorities say that it will take another 45 days to be commercially operational. Every time there is a bad weather, air passengers suffer a lot. A few take the risk of driving down to places like Chennai or Hyderabad to catch a connecting flight.”

For a change, even the perennially prone areas like Gnanapuram and other low-lying areas were spared from inundation. Chief Engineer of the GVMC Panduranga Rao said that it was due to the timely de-silting of the streams in those areas that saved the day.

Friday’s deep depression that lay centred over Telangana region weakened into a depression and moved further in the west-northwest direction towards the Marathwada (Maharashtra) region and was likely to weaken gradually.

Under its influence, rain or thundershowers were likely at many places in the next 24 hours over the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh. Some places might experience heavy to very heavy rain during the same period. Wind speed could reach up to 45 kmph to 50 kmph along the coastal region of the State and the sea condition would continue to be rough.

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