Southwest monsoon set to hit AP in the next 48 hours
People wade through rainwater following a downpour at New Colony in Visakhapatnam on Friday. Several low-lying areas were inundated due to the heavy rains in the city. (Photo: DC)
Visakhapatnam: Friday morning was a nightmare for road-users as heavy rain that lashed the city for over two hours crammed up the roads more than usual. It was the various road development works and clogged drains that led to complete water-logging at several places.
Director of Cyclone Warning Centre (CWC), Visakhapatnam, K. Ramachandra Rao, said that the downpour was a typical pre-monsoon rain only and he said that the southwest monsoon was all set to spread across Andhra Pradesh in the next 48 hours. The heavy rains started around 8.30 pm and lashed for two hours continuously.
Officer-goers and students of various colleges got caught in traffic jams due to water-logging on the roads at several places in the city. Traffic on National Highway-16 stretch in a few parts of the city was chocked till 10.30 am due to water-logging and the traffic cops said that they were helpless as they couldn’t clear the water off the roads.
Motorists were finding it difficult to negotiate their way through the water flowing areas such as One Town, Akkayya-palem, MVP Colony, Beach Road, Gajuwaka, Gopalapatnam and a few other areas across the road and some vehicles just broke down.
Cyclone Warning Centre (CWC) in Vizag has recorded a downpour of 92 mm at Waltair and 46 mm at the airport. The Met officials said that Friday downpour is the highest rainfall in the city so far in 2015. Sources said that the downpour left several low-lying areas in the city flooded and damaged the roads at some places.
The city traffic police wing could only watch helplessly as the traffic chaos unfolded around them and the traffic took a faster pace and got back to normal after the rainwater receded from the roads.
Blaming the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) officials for water-logging at several places, N.S. Rao, a resident of MVP Colony, said that the skies have geared up to send gallons of water in a few days but the GVMC officials are yet to complete the much-needed repairs of the storm-water drains.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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