Extremely heavy rains send life out of control in Telangana, disrupting road and rail traffic

Extremely heavy rainfall of 41.2 cm rain in a span of less than 24 hours at Bheemadevarapalle in Hanamkonda, 38 cm at Kalleda in Warangal and over 10 cm rain at 109 weather monitoring stations on Wednesday showed the widespread impact of Cyclone Montha in Telangana.

The rain led to waterlogging and flooding, disrupting road and rail traffic across the state and disrupting train schedules across the sector. In Hyderabad, residents woke up to light to moderate rain that continued incessantly throughout the day and night, fluctuating in intensity but rarely stopping.

According to TGDPS data, the highest rainfall recorded in Hyderabad in 12 hours was 4.4 cm in Musheerabad, followed by 4 cm in Secunderabad Cantonment, 3.9 cm in Osmania University, 3.8 cm in Chandrayangutta, 3.8 cm in Amberpet, 3.6 cm Alwal, 3.5 cm in Quthbullapur and 3.5 cm in Kukatpally.

Several parts of the city, including Saifabad, Fatehnagar bridge, Balkampet, Lakdikapul, Ayodhya Junction, Masabtank flyover, Mehdipatnam, Dhulapally, Khajaguda junction, Kothaguda junction, Raidurgam metro station and parts of the IT corridor, were badly affected. Many of these areas remained congested during the day, although traffic eased towards the evening.

Traffic police personnel from all three commissionerates, Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda, along with Disaster Response Force (DRF) teams of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYRDAA) were deployed at major intersections to clear waterlogging and manage vehicular movement.

Train services were also affected with several, including the Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Vande Bharat Express, stranded due to waterlogged tracks in various parts of the state. However, operations at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport remained unaffected as visibility levels remained stable and no flight cancellations or diversions were reported.