Central team visits flood-hit Bhadradri

Hyderabad: A Central team on Friday visited flood-hit Bhadradri-Kothagudem and Nirmal districts to assess the damages caused by recent heavy rain and floods.

The six-member inter-ministerial team headed by Sourav Rai went around Bhadrachalam town and adjoining villages which were worst hit by floods in Godavari river.

The team members inspected the damages caused to the houses, roads, crops and other infrastructure. They also interacted with the affected people.

The central team also saw a photo exhibition at ITDA office arranged by Bhadradri-Kothagudem district administration on the damages caused by the floods.

District collector D Anudeep briefed the central team on the losses suffered due to the natural calamity. He pegged the losses to various departments at Rs 162 crore.

Earlier, the team visited flood-hit areas of Nirmal district. It inspected Kadam dam, which received record inflows last week due to heavy rains in upstream areas, including in the neighbouring Maharashtra.

Nirmal district collector Musharraf Ali Faruqui briefed the team on the damages caused by the floods.

The team, which also visited Adilabad and Mancherial districts to assess the damages, was briefed on the situation by the secretary for disaster management Rahul Bojja.

After returning to Hyderabad, the team will meet Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and other top officials. The state officials will brief the team on the ground situation and the estimates of the losses suffered by various departments.

Based on the field inspection and the inputs received from the state government, the team will submit a report to the Centre, recommending assistance for flood relief.

The state government on Wednesday requested the Centre to provide Rs 1,000 crore as immediate assistance towards flood relief to the state.

The state government sent a report to the Centre about the losses suffered by the state due to recent heavy rains and floods. As per the initial estimates, various departments suffered losses to the tune of about Rs 1,400 crore.