Heavy rain lashes Hyd, rescue op underway as Musi river in spate

Torrential rains lashed Hyderabad and adjoining Ranga Reddy and Vikarabad districts in Telangana on Saturday, triggering heavy floods in the Musi River catchment areas and paralysing life across the capital city.

- Srinivasa Rao Apparasu

‘The twin reservoirs — Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar —on the outskirts of Hyderabad, were almost filled to the brim, forcing the authorities to lift the gates of to release nearly 35,000 cusecs of water, for the first time in the last two decades, leading to unprecedented flood flow in the Musi.

The sudden release of water swelled the Musi, inundating several low-lying settlements. The service road of Nehru Outer Ring Road between Narsingi and Man-chirevula was completely cut off due to massive flood flow from Himayatsagar. “Four people were stranded in the flood waters and the disaster response force (DRF) teams of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation rescued them,” a GHMC official supervising the rescue operations said.