Hyderabad/Vijayawada, Oct 5 :
Residents of Vijayawada and people living in the villages on the baks of river Krishna in Guntur and Krishna districts are passing through some anxious moments since Monday morning as huge quantities of water 10.5 lakh cusecs of water released from nagarjuna Sagar reached Pakasham barrage. This huge release of water from nagarjuna Sagar is threatening to submerge the localities and villages down the river Krishna in Vijayawada .
The River Krishna at Vijaywada has virtually turned into a sea in all its fury as the water level reached alarming levels at Prakasam Barrage. Government sources report that the flood-hit numbers reached a whooping 13 lakhs while another 200 villages in Nalgonda, Krishna and Guntur districts are inundated. The official death toll put up is 60. Another estimated two lakh people lost their homes.
According to the state irrigation officials there is no threat at the moment flow of water Sagar as well as at the Prakasham barrage is being regulated.
They further added that the outflow from Prakasham barrage would be brought down to 9 lakh cusecs so that villages down the barrage will not be inundated. Another encouraging new is that t he bunds of canals that cris-cross the districts of Krishna and Guntur had been strengthened in the last two days as a precautionary method to hold a check on the breaches.
Road links:
The all-important road link between Hyderabad and Vijayawada was snapped on Monday as flood waters of the Krishna flowed over parts of National Highway 9 at Keesara, Kanchikacherla, Ibrahimpatnam and other places. The large expanse of waters engulfed villages in Avanigadda area, close to the Bay of Bengal.
Waters receding:
Meanwhile in Kurnool and Mahaboobnagar districts the flood situation caused river Krishna and in its two tributaries, the Tungabhadra and Handri, is slowly receding . With the situation improving the government has a tough task at hand to carry out the relief operations. However, normalcy is yet to be restored in Nandyal town of Kurnool district, half of which was submerged by flash floods in the Kundu river on its outskirts.