Heavy rains battered Andhra Pradesh for the second day on Thursday, affecting normal life at several places even as the low pressure area over Odisha coast and the adjoining north-west Bay of Bengal turned well-marked.
Under its influence, the monsoon turned vigorous, forcing the Government to maintain high alert in the entire State. Collectors in almost all the districts, particularly those in coastal Andhra, been asked to be prepared to undertake rescue and relief operations.
As the system was lying close to the coast, India Meteorological Department ruled out the possibility it intensifying into a depression but forecast rains on Friday-Saturday too.
ADVERTISEMENT
Chintapalli in Visakhapatnam district recorded the heaviest rainfall of 13 cm followed by 10 cms in Tirumala and Therlam (Srikakulam) 8 cm.
Vehicular traffic hit
Numerous rivulets and streams were in spate, holding up vehicular traffic. Low-lying residential areas and portions of roads were inundated at many places, including Hyderabad which experienced heavy rain in the evening. Twenty villages in Khammam district were cut off as Cheekativagu was in spate.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Godavari rose at Bhadrachalam but was flowing below the first warning level there. Sriramsagar reservoir began receiving inflows of 15,000 cusecs. Yellampalli, project in Karimnagar district was also getting inflows from Swarna and Kaddem. Irrigation authorities released water from Prakasham Barrage for the Krishna delta.
The rains turned a boon for farmers and power utilities as the demand fell to 253 million units per day. The sown area increased to 29.57 lakh hectares—36 per cent of the normal khariff area of 81 lakh ha.
No inflows were received in any of the Krishna-based projects as a semi dry spell prevailed in the river’s catchment areas in Maharashtra and Karnataka.