Heavy rains lash Telugu states

With a low pressure area hovering over neighbouring Odisha, heavy rains have been lashing coastal Andhra Pradesh and parts of Telangana, bringing in copious inflows into its reservoirs.

Dhauleswaram in East Godavari district, Vamsadhara in Srikakulam, Kinnersani near Bhadradri, Tungabhadra in Kurnool and Kadem in Telangana are brimming with water. Thousands of cusecs of water have been released downstream from these reservoirs.

However, as many as 53 persons, including 40 sand quarry workers, ten truck drivers, three procaine operators and three shepherds were stranded along with their equipment and vehicles in the middle of river Vamsadhara since Sunday.

They were struck there with the water levels sudden rising from the upper stream in neighbouring Odisha.

On Monday, the district administration, with the help of national and state disaster response teams, apart from the local fire tenders, rescued the stranded workers.

According to officials, the workers began quarrying late in the night in the sand reaches in the middle of the river at Purushottamapuram village in Sarubujjuli block.

They were aware of the release of water from the upper stream, but did not expect it to be huge. All the 22 crest gates were opened to release 88,167 cusecs of water around midnight.

Meanwhile, search operations for the six missing girls in river Godavari after the boat they were going overturned near Polavaram in East Godavari district on Saturday evening have failed to yield any results.

Even as three dead bodies were recovered on Monday, later they were identified as someone else.

It may be mentioned that a boat carrying about 33 passengers capsized after hitting a pillar of a bridge under construction across the river. A total of 26 passengers, most of them students, were rescued and are safe.

NDRF and State Disaster Response Force and the Navy helicopters are carrying out the search for the missing girl students.