ARMY, NDRF DEPLOYED FOR FLOOD RELIEF IN HYDERABAD

HYDERABAD: The flood situation continued to be grim in Hyderabad on Saturday even as four columns of Army and 12 troops of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), each comprising 40 men, were pressed into service for relief work in the rain-affected parts of the capital city.

Heavy rains that have been wreaking havoc for the past four days in the Telugu states have claimed 17 lives so far — nine in Andhra Pradesh and eight in Telangana.

According to Met officials, the well-marked low pressure currently over Telangana and adjoining Chhattisgarh and Vidarbha continues to persist and is expected to bring heavy rain to Telangana in the next 24 hours.

Even though Hyderabad — which has been totally battered due to heavy rains in the last three days — received moderate rain in the last 12 hours, several residential colonies in the city remained submerged. Some of the low-lying areas remained cut off from the rest of the city even as Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and some NGOs made efforts to provide relief material to those affected. The army has been deployed in Begumpet, Nizampet, Hakimpet and Alwal areas of Greater Hyderabad. The army has also set up a control room at GHMC office and in coordination with the GHMC and NDRF officials are closely monitoring the situation on the ground.

A team of Army personnel also visited some of the marooned areas in Alwal in Ranga Reddy district to assess the situation.

Telangana minister for municipal administration KT Rama Rao said six more NDRF teams and two helicopters have been kept on standby for emergency situations. The state government is appointing a consultant to study and advise on road conditions as several parts on the city roads caved in following the heavy rains.

In Telangana, eight people, including two children, died in different incidents in the wake of heavy rains across the state. In Medak, a mother with her kid was washed away in Nawab Vagu, a local stream. As many as 23 people have been stranded in Manjira flood waters and efforts are on to rescue them.