Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

63 houses damaged as heavy rain lashes city

– Photo: S. Gopakumar (See also Page 5)

Stranded: The Mumbai-Kanyakumari Express that was stranded for over an hour near the Uppilamoodu bridge as heavy showers inundated rail tracks in the city on Tuesday. Many passengers and office-goers braved the flood waters and scrambled up the steep embankment of the railway line to reach the road above.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Forty families were evacuated to safer places in Thiruvananthapuram city and 63 houses were damaged in the district following thundershowers induced by a low pressure atmospheric trough over the Arabian sea on Tuesday.

Silt-laden canals overflowed their banks, roads and railway tracks got inundated and the sewerage system came apart at its seams at many locations as the capital city soaked in 49.5 mm of rain between 8.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. The heaviest of the showers were between 9 a.m. and noon.

Eighty-five persons from 40 families living by the side of the Kannammoola canal were shifted to the Community Health Centre at Kannammola as the water level in the canal kept rising sharply through the day.

Revenue and railway officials scrambled to remove garbage and silt from a portion of the Amayizhanchan canal passing beneath the railway tracks at a point near the Uppilamoodu bridge to enable storm water to drain off the tracks. Train traffic in the city was affected for close to three hours as tracks got submerged, District Collector N. Ayyappan said.

Many roads in the city were inundated following the thundershowers throwing traffic out of gear. The road from the Uppilamoodu bridge to ‘Irumbupalam’ disappeared under the waters surging from the Amayinzhanchan canal that runs between the road and the railway tracks. Signalling that the many schemes and crores of rupees spent on preventing flooding at Pazhavangadi and Thampanoor have gone down the drain, floodwaters were waist-high at these locations. Revenue officials used an earthmover to knock down a wall constructed by a private party to enable flood waters to drain off a road at Karinkulam on the way to Vizhinjam.

While nine houses in Thiruvananthapuram taluk were damaged, the corresponding figures for Nedumangad and Neyyattinkara taluks were 16 and 35, respectively. While one house in Chirayinkeezhu taluk was destroyed, the other two were in Thiruvananthapuram taluk. No one was injured in these incidents.

On Tuesday night, Revenue officials started cutting open the sand bar (‘Pozhi’) at Veli to facilitate the draining off of storm water into the sea.

After a visit to Thampanoor on Tuesday afternoon, Public Works Minister Mons Joseph directed Public Works Department secretary Tom Jose to carry out a study to find a permanent solution for the flooding there and submit a report at the earliest. The secretary will be assisted by the executive engineers of the NH and Roads divisions. Once the report is submitted, a high-level meeting of MLAs, the Mayor, Corporation councillors and other people’s representatives will be called to discuss the report, the Minister said. Officials concerned have been instructed to clear blocks in storm drains wherever necessary, he added.

According to a press note, Thiruvananthapuram East MLA V. Sivankutty said that flooding persists at Thampanoor even after crores of rupees had been spent on preventive measures. This was because the officials concerned were not able to identify the real cause of the flood. Helpful action was not forthcoming from the railways on the issue, the press note said.

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