Erstwhile Khammam district receives heavy rainfall

Khammam/Kothagudem: Erstwhile Khammam district witnessed heavy rainfall since Thursday. The water level in the river Godavari reached 40 feet at Bhadrachalam on Friday evening.

The Central Water Commission forecast that water level may reach second warning level by night.

The District Collector Rajat Kumar Saini alerted villagers on the banks of the river and directed the officials to evacuate the people in the affected villages to relief camps.

Due to heavy rainfall, Kinnerasani project and majority of irrigation tanks in Kothagudem received huge inflows on Friday. The coal production was affected in SCCL's Open Cast (OC) mines at Kothagudem, Yellandu, Manuguru and Sathupalli.

Bhadrachalam, Mulkalpalli, Cherla, Pinapaka and Burgampahad received above 100 mm rainfall during the past 24 hours and it caused many streams and rivulets to overflow. Many villages in Cherla and Gundala mandals were cut off from other areas.

The Irrigation officials lifted 23 gates of Taliperu project and released nearly 1.69 lakh cusecs water into the river Godavari. Pedavagu project in Aswaraopet mandal also received huge inflows following heavy rains.

In Khammam district Sathupalli mandal received 111.2 mm rainfall, while other mandals also witnessed heavy rainfall, six of them heavy rains and 10 mandals moderate rainfall for the past 24 hours. Water level in Wyra reservoir reached 11.6 feet.

Khammam District Collector R V Karnan visited Vemsoor mandal and inspected the crops. With the widespread rains in erstwhile Khammam, agriculture fields were inundated by rain waters at several places.