Two more floodgates of Himayatsagar lifted

Hyderabad: With heavy rains upstream of the catchment areas of Himayatsagar, two more gates were lifted to release water into river Musi on Friday by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB).

With this, a total of seven out of seventeen reservoirs gates have been lifted in the span of three days, releasing 2,400 cusecs of floodwater from the drinking water reservoir into the Musi.

Three gates were lifted on Tuesday once the reservoir reached the full tank level of 1,763.50 ft., releasing 1,000 cusecs and later 2 more gates were lifted on Thursday releasing 1,700 cusecs of water.

Meanwhile, a huge amount of water flows from Himayatsagar Reservoir to Khaleej Dargah road near the service roads of the Outer Ring Road and enters Musi River at Atapur, Bapu Ghat, Langer Hose, Puranapul, Nayapul, Chaderghar and Moosaram.

Meanwhile, two floodgates of Osman Sagar (Gandipet) were raised on Thursday evening up to one-foot level with the discharge of 200 cusecs of water.

Rains and floods situation in the state

Just one day of torrential rain was enough for Hyderabad to relive the horror of October 2020 when the city fell to its knees due to the worst floods in recent memories.

For the last few days, it has been raining heavily all over the Telangana state. Incessant rainfall continued, disrupting normal life. Heavy rains led to flooding in many parts of the state with the catchment areas of the Godavari and Krishna rivers continuing to be inundated.

The water level in both rivers rose at an alarming rate due to rainfall in the upper regions of the neighboring states.

In Telangana, at least 16 districts are experiencing flood-like conditions due to heavy rains.

The rains plunged most districts of Telangana into darkness as electricity supply was disrupted, as hundreds of electricity poles were damaged.

According to the Telangana state development planning association (TSDPS), the highest rainfall in the state was recorded as of 8:30 pm on Friday in Musra in Nizamabad district. It had received 85.5 mm of rain. In the city, the highest rainfall was recorded as of 8:30 p.m. at the Primary Urban Health Center, Jahnuma with 10 mm of rain.

More rains predicted

According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), there will be rain in the northern part of the state in the next 24 hours. The rest of the state will still see extensive but less intense rain.

“For the next 24 hours, we predict that there will be light to moderate rains over many parts of the state. However, there would be very to extremely heavy rainfall over the northern district of Adilabad in the state,” K Naga Ratna, director, IMD Hyderabad, told Deccan Chronicle.

The meteorological department has warned of heavy rains in several parts of Adilabad, Kumrambhim, Asifabad and Manchiriala districts of northern Telangana today. Nirmal, Nizamabad, Jagittala, Rajanna Sirisilla, Karimnagar, Peddapalli, Jayashankar, Bhupalpally, Mulugu, Khammam and Mahabubabad districts are likely to receive heavy rains.