india

Updated: Aug 09, 2019 21:07 IST

The Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh continued to swell for the fifth consecutive day on Friday due to huge inflows from upstream, battering several coastal areas of East and West Godavari districts.

The water level in the river at the temple town of Bhadrachalam in Telangana crossed 48ft on Friday afternoon, forcing the authorities to sound a second-level warning signal. “At present, the water level is steady, but if there are more rains, it might swell and if the level crosses 53ft, a third warning signal will be sounded,” an official bulletin said.

According to reports from Bhadrachalam, flood water entered the halls where lunch is served to the devotees free-of-cost in the temple premises, besides shopping complexes around the temple. The authorities are pumping out water from the temple vicinity.

The flood situation in the twin Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh, continues to be bad. At Polavaram, the water level is rising at danger levels, inundating several villages like Devipatnam located on the banks of the river.

“As many as 36 villages are marooned in the water, but the people are refusing to move to safer locations. The construction of coffer dam as part of the Polavaram project resulted in flooding of the villages,” an official from the Real Time Governance Society said.

The authorities of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Friday airlifted as many as 31 fishermen who were caught in the fury of the Godavari river in 18 boats at Veervarapu Lanka village. They all belonged to the Dowleshwaram village of East Godavari district.

As the Godavari river has been steadily swelling with huge inflows, the irrigation department authorities have lifted all gates of the Dowleshwaram barrage and are discharging water. By Friday afternoon, the authorities released 14.52 lakh cusecs from the barrage.

This has resulted in submergence of 40 villages in the Konaseema region in the downstream of the river. The villagers complained of lack of electricity and drinking water. Over 13,000 families were shifted to safer areas, where they are being provided with food and drinking water, RTGS officials said.

In Yanam, which belongs to the Union Territory of Pondicherry but is geographically located in Andhra Pradesh, too, the flood situation is turning worse, submerging several colonies, according to reports reaching Amaravati.

Meanwhile, the Krishna river, too, has been getting huge inflows of water from upstream due to heavy rains in Karnataka and Maharashtra.

On Friday, the inflows into the Srisailam reservoir reached 3.26 lakh cusecs, forcing both the Telangana and Andhra governments to release water from the dam into the downstream. Irrigation minister of Andhra Pradesh P Anil Kumar and civil supplies minister of Telangana G Niranjan Reddy formally lifted the dam gates to release the water. The water will reach Nagarjunasagar dam in a couple of days.