Flood situation grim at Telangana's Bhadrachalam

Hyderabad, July 15: The flood situation in Telangana's Bhadrachalam town and surrounding areas remained grim on Friday with the Godavari river flowing above the danger mark and the water level rising every hour.

Several residential areas in the temple town and hundreds of villages along the course of the river in Bhadradri Kothagudem district were marooned and cut-off.

The water level at Bhadrachalam dam at 11 a.m. on Friday stood at 68.70 feet, much above the third flood warning level of 53 feet. According to District Collector D. Anudeep, the inflow and outflow was about 23 lakh cusecs.

With continuing massive inflows from the upstream, Anudeep said the water level may rise to 75 feet. He directed the people of Shanti Nagar, Rajupeta, Industrial Area, CRPF camp, temple area, and Mudiraj Street to evacuate and move to relief camps. About 10,000 people from these areas have reached relief camps so far.

About 100 villages in Cherla, Dummugudem, Aswapuram, Burgampadu, Pinapaka and Manugur mandals (blocks) remained cut off as the road links were submerged. With electricity transformers getting inundated, authorities stopped power supply to the villages as a precautionary measure.

Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have taken up rescue and relief operations in the marooned areas.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao directed the officials to arrange helicopters to send relief materials to Bhadrachalam.

Bhadrachalam remained cut-off for the second day with the closure of the famous Godavari bridge for vehicular traffic. Vehicular traffic was stopped on Thursday evening on this bridge which links the temple town to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

The restrictions were imposed at 5 p.m. for a period of 48 hours as a precautionary measure as the river was flowing above the danger mark.

This is the second time in the history of this bridge that it has been closed due to floods. The last time it was closed for traffic was in 1986 when water level had reached 75.6 feet.

The authorities also imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code in Bhadrachalam and Burgampadu mandals. Officials said this was done to stop people from coming out from their homes as they may be at risk due to the flood situation. Three teams of NDRF have been deployed in the town.