Mandous-induced heavy rains hit normal life in pilgrim city

Tirupati: The Mandous cyclone induced heavy rains lashed the pilgrim city hitting the normal life on Saturday. With the torrential rains pouring throughout the night, several low-lying areas in the city and the localities on both sides of Srinivasam flyover, which meanders through the thickly populated areas, where in many places the drains were disrupted (due to flyover works still going on), the rainwater entered into the houses causing a lot of inconvenience to the residents. Traffic on road was affected due to uprooting of trees including Doddapuram Street, Lakshmipuram circle and other places. Power supply was also disrupted for hours in many localities. Low-lying areas including Gollavanikunta, Koramenugunta, Narayanapuram, Autonagar, ST V Nagar, Kennady Nagar and many other localities were under kneedeep water forcing the people to remain indoors. Nakkala Kalani near the city was inundated with the Adpareddypalli tank water flowing into the colony due to tank canal encroachments. Kapilatheertham and Malavanigundam waterfalls flowing from Tirumala hills were in spate due to heavy rains on the upper reaches in the forests and Corporation authorities alerted the residents living near the canals passing through densely populated areas in the city. Residents flocked Kapilatheertham to view the cascading waterfall in full force. MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy along with Municipal Commissioner Anupama Anjali and officials, braving rains and weeding through kneedeep waters inspected the rain-affected areas and geared up the works for clearing waters in the inundated colonies, clearing fallen trees and branches hindering traffic and cleaning of drains to avoid waters flowing on the streets. In his two-hour long hectic visit, the MLA and Commissioner interacted with the rain-affected and sought the residents to be alert as the cyclone impact persisted.

He directed the municipal staff and the ward secretariat personnel to take necessary steps to ensure free flow of rainwater to avoid inundation. The pilgrims who were caught unaware of the torrential rains, faced difficulties in Tirupati, Tirumala and surrounding areas.