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Several roads in the city were under a sheet of water and low-lying areas in Old Town area and some colonies in Gajuwaka were inundated on Sunday as a result of heavy rain from Saturday evening.
Most people chose to remain indoor as it rained continually from Saturday night till Sunday afternoon. Daily wage earners, motorists and pedestrians going on errands and private workers braved the rain and chill to make it for work. RTC buses were empty for a greater part of the day.
The roads in Old Town area were flooded with rain water as the drains were clogged with wastes and plastics, preventing the free flow of water. The road under the Chavulamadhum rail-over-bridge was full of water and vehicular traffic was diverted as two cars got struck in the water.
Special Correspondent adds:
The flooding of various parts of One Town and the under-bridge at Chavulmadum causing huge traffic diversion was due to the closing of tail-end gate of the storm water drain passing through the Visakhapatnam Port area, Minister for Municipal Administration P. Narayana has said.
The Minister on seeing the traffic diversion walked up to the gate about 1.5 km away accompanied by MLA Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar and discussed the situation with Visakhapatnam Port Trust Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu.
Mr. Naryana later told a press conference that while the water level at the gate was 7.4 ft, on the other side it was zero.
There was a high tide in the sea too.
The port authorities closed the gate to prevent huge inflow of plastic waste into the sea owing to objection from international shipping agencies stating that blades of their vessels were being affected, the Minister said.
After his intervention, the port authorities opened the gates, he said. Several areas abutting the 75-feet Road after Dolphin Hotel, including Velampeta and up to Sea Horse junction, were flooded.
Mr. Narayana said whenever such a situation occurred GVMC officials should speak to the port authorities to save the situation. Besides, GVMC should also have a gate on its side.
On the flooding, he said since the city was surrounded by hillslopes water flowed down to certain areas.
Drains condition
The situation was made worse by the opening to the drains getting clogged or due to bad road levels.
On the drain condition that led to death of a six-year-old girl, Aditi, recently, he said at some places drains were open, at some they were covered.
All the drains should be covered and GVMC officials were asked to prepare a report in the next two weeks. Also at some places, the level of drain walls had to be raised from that of the road.
Municipal Commissioner Pravin Kumar and VUDA Vice-chairman T. Baburao Naidu accompanied the Minister during his visit.
Gate closure by the port authorities has led to flooding of the areas in the city, says P. Narayana, Minister
From: The Hindu