The once-in-a-generation rainfall turned Hyderabad citizens into disaster tourists. People risked their life and limb to watch the Musi river touch both the banks, the destruction at Gaganpahad and swirling waters of lakes near Jalapalli.
“The road is straight but the water has chipped away a portion. I am asking people not to go there but they are not listening,” said Narasimha of Laxmiguda village as throngs of people walked across the overflowing waters from the Yerrakunta lake, which is part of a system that includes Madikunta, Jalapalli and Palle Cheruvu.
Family outing
“I have come from Kattedan to watch this,” said Shankar, a battery technician who brought his wife and two kids on the bike to see the muddy water swirl beside the road near Umda Sagar Lake. But a majority of visitors and people trying to catch fish were from VAMBAY colony in the area.
The rush to see the Musi river in spate created trouble for police in the Attapur area as the freshly-laid asphalt road between Langar Houz and Attapur showed some cracks and displacement of earthen work. The road is a reclamation project on the Musi. A large number of people turned up at the Tipu Khan Bridge, Bapu Ghat bridge and other bridges and vantage points to see the sweep of the river flow. The teeming mass of rubbernecks led to traffic blockages at multiple places.
At Gaganpahad, people clambered up the unfinished flyover to see the destruction wrought by the water right from the Old Kurnool Highway down the path where the water scattered cars, containers and the road which was twisted out of shape. “This is a main road and people from surrounding areas are coming to see this. The main road is anyway blocked for regular traffic,” said a police official who was seen trying to shoo away the visitors.
