ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Floods threaten three AP districts

The Andhra Pradesh government has requested the army to stand by and told the collectors of Nalgonda, Guntur and Krishna districts to evacuate people from low-lying areas which are threatened with inundation following the discharge of nearly 800,000 cusecs of water from the Nagarjunasagar reservoir into the River Krishna.

Official sources said that for the first time in 34 years, there has been a huge outflow from Nagarjunasagar. About 776,000 cusecs of water were released at 0630 hours today.

Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting with the state chief secretary and other officials before leaving for an aerial survey of the rain-affected areas of Kurnool district.

The sources said floodwaters had entered Gundlapalli and Sultanpur Tanda in Nalgonda district. Nearly 1,000 families were moved out of low-lying areas.

All seven units at the Srisailam power station were rendered "dead" with floodwaters flowing in after the riverside wall collapsed in the wee hours today.

A top Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board official said the wall collapsed when the waters of the Krishna eroded the downstream area and entered up to the "unloading bay point" following heavy rain in the river's catchment areas in the last two days.

APSEB Chairman Parthasarathi and Chief Engineer (civil) Venkataswami Reddy rushed to the place.

The seven plants generate about 13 million units of electricity a day.

A decision on restarting power generation will be taken after a thorough inspection, the official said.

Meanwhile, Union Agriculture Minister Sompal has agreed to send a central team to assess the damage caused by the heavy rains.

This follows a telephonic request by Union Minister of State for Urban Affairs Bandaru Dattatreya.

Dattatreya said rains have damaged crops and property worth Rs 2,000 million, besides claiming 68 lives.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report