HYDERABAD: Following heavy rainfall for the past few days, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) lifted six gates of Himayatsagar by two feet and eight gates of Osmansagar by five feet on Tuesday.
A total of 3,910 cusecs of water was released from Himayatsagar to the Musi and 4,648 cusecs from Osmansagar. This apart, the officials released 1,793.64 cusecs of water from the Hussainsagar.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior GHMC official said about 80 families comprising 400 members were shifted to safer locations. He said the authorities would provide free food to them from Annapurna canteens until the outflows from the twin reservoirs stopped.
The official said the municipal staff, in coordination with the HMWSSB, revenue and police, had been monitoring the situation. He said though the majority of gates were opened in Himayatsagar and Osmansagar, inflows were on the rise from Monday evening and more gates will be eventually lifted based on the inflows.
The Hyderabad police advised people on the banks of the river to be alert. Due to heavy rains in the catchment areas of the Musi river, flash floods may occur at midnight. It was better to be alert in the low-lying areas of Musi banks including Kishanbagh, Ziaguda, Puranapul, MGBS, Chaderghat, Amberpet, Puranapul, Attapur and Golnaka, the police said.
The GHMC asked all deputy commissioners and zonal commissioners of Golconda, Asifnagar, Bahadurpura, Nampally, Charminar, Himayathnagar and Saidabad to be on high alert for inundation and evacuation if the need arose.
Major roads in Hyderabad were flooded, forcing motorists to wade through knee-deep water with extreme caution. Extensive water-logging also resulted in traffic gridlocks at several stretches in the city. A large number of low-lying areas in the city are facing flood-like situations and the GHMC workers and personnel from police and traffic are doing their best to provide relief and ensure there are no water logging points.
Traffic police personnel were seen clearing water-logging at many places including Bahadurpura, Rajendranagar, Nagole, LB Nagar, Mehdipatnam and several other low lying areas.
Apart from this, Hussainsagar reached beyond its full tank level (FTL) 513.41 feet on Tuesday. The GHMC's irrigation wing official said it still had a buffer of 0.3 metre to reach the maximum water level (MWL) of 514.91 feet. At present, the lake reached 513.47 feet and another 30 metres rise in the water level would be a matter of concern.
Officials said that if the rain continued for more days, it had to lift the sluice gates apart from rehabilitating residents living in the low lying areas.
However, corporation authorities claimed that there would be no need for panic as the corporation had been maintaining FTL on any given day. Excess water would be released through the sluice gates and diversion nala near Marriott Hotel.
Officials said there was no danger, but residents would be alerted and requested to shift to nearby rehabilitation centres if the level crossed 514.91 feet.
Hussainsagar has two outflow points, one near the Marriott Hotel and another near the GHMC head office. A total of 21 channels that lead to the vent near the hotel ends up in the surplus nala that winds its way over 5.5 km to Golnaka.
Release of a large quantity of water could endanger people especially those living along the canal in Ambedkarnagar, Sabarmatinagar, Arundhatinagar, Subash Chandra Bose Nagar, parts of Domalguda, Bapujinagar, parts of Himayatnagar, Dattanagar, Sriramnagar, Satyanagar, Ratnanagar, Shivanandanagar and Ganganagar. The situation would depend on the inflows from Kukatpally nala and other upstream lakes which are mostly encroached.
