Rains bring city to grinding halt
Heavy rains battered the twin cities on Monday evening, with people returning to the city after the long weekend, being badly affected. Many were stranded at MG Bus Station, Jubilee Bus Station, LB Nagar and the Uppal-Warangal highway.
There were long queues and delays at toll plazas of Korlapahad, Panthangi, Vijayawada-Hyderabad highway. Traffic had to be regulated at 13 inter-junctions on the ORR. The Chaderghat Railway Road under bridge had to be closed as it was flooded and vehicles were diverted to internal residential lanes. There was bumper to bumper traffic from Mehdipatnam to Gachibowli as the Galaxy junction was under kneedeep water.
Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao took stock of the situation.
A 36-year-old man was electrocuted in the Old City while two persons, including a baby, were trapped in the debris of a wall collapse following the heavy rain on Monday.
A massive operation has been launched to rescue the two persons, physically-challenged daily wage earner Yadalu and his sixmonth-old son in the collapse in Banjara Hills. The site is in a low-lying area because of which rescue vehicles could not reach it.
Police and GHMC workers have launched manual operations.
Police said the the low-lying Singadikunta basthi, located behind the Income-Tax Colony, has about 100 huts with a population of over 500 people.
Heavy flow of water along the wall inundated the huts, and the wall collapsed. Police said Yadalu’s wife and their fouryear-old daughter ran out but Yadalu could not come out. His wife rushed back to help Yadulu and the baby but the debris had covered the huts. The electrocution victim in the old city was identified as Mohd Afsar Baig, resident of Shaheennagar. “He went to have tea at a nearby hotel and while returning the water was at his waist level. He grabbed onto a vehicle parked on the roadside, on which a live electric wire had fallen” said Hussaini Alam inspector G. Shyamsundar.