Vijayawada: Floodwater discharge on the rise; riverbed residents on edge

Vijayawada: With floodwater discharge from Prakasam barrage is gradually increasing for the past two days, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation commissioner Prasanna Venkatesh has suggested the people living in the river bed areas downstream of Prakasam barrage-- Bhupesh Gupta Nagar, Taraka Rama Nagar, Balaji Nagar and other areas-- to move to safer places. Floodwater discharge from Prakasam barrage crossed 1.5 lakh cusecs on Monday with heavy inflows continuing into the Prakasam barrage from the catchment areas and rivulets of Munneru and Kattaleru in Western Krishna.

The commissioner suggested the officials of the VMC to shift the flood-affected people, if the discharge increases and water enters the residential areas.

Due to various reasons, hundreds of families constructed houses in the river bed and their houses may be inundated in the flood water, if the flood water discharge exceeds more than two lakh cusecs.

Thousands of families living on the Krishna Karakatta are also on high alert and gearing up to move to safer places, if the flood water levels increase in coming days. On the other hand, the VMC has set up a control room with phone number of 0866-2424172 and the mobile number 8181 960 909 at the VMC office in view of the reports of cyclone. The control room will receive the complaints from the people on leakages or damages to the water pipelines, falling of trees, falling of boulders, landslides, other disasters, seasonal diseases etc and will address the problems of the people.

VMC commissioner Prasanna Venkatesh said on Monday the control room works 24x7 in three shifts and the officials will respond to the grievances of the denizens.