Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Traffic comes to a halt near Keesara bridge

VIJAYAWADA: Floodwater overflowed National Highway-9 near Keesara bridge in Krishna district, bringing traffic on both sides between Hyderabad and Vijayawada to a standstill since 5 a.m. on Sunday. Traffic from Vijayawada was diverted at Ibrahimpatnam and that from Hyderabad at Suryapet.

The situation worsened with the Munneru rivulet unrelentingly in spate following heavy inflows from the upper reaches in Khammam district and also due to breaches to the tank at Nawabpet and other places on account of heavy rain. The officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Nandigama police stopped traffic on either side right from early morning to prevent any mishap.

They said on Sunday afternoon that there was no scope for the traffic to be restored in the next 24 hours, as floods were unlikely to recede by then. Floodwater overflowing the NH-9 reached three to four feet by 3 p.m. on Sunday, and it was expected to go up a little higher as per the forecast.

Tens of hundreds of lorries and other vehicles were stranded for over 1 km on either side of the overflowing NH-9 at the spot. Floodwater kept overflowing the highway for a distance of 600 to 700 metres, even as officials did not allow even pedestrians who tried to cross the stream with the help of ropes.

This is the fourth time that traffic is disrupted at Aitavaram between Keesara bridge and Ambarupet, since the completion of the highway five years ago. NH-9 Operations and Maintenance (O&M) engineer V. Ravi Kiran, who came to the spot along with his staff, said they stopped traffic immediately after noticing the overflowing water.

Local MLA Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, who visited the spot, advised NHAI officials to rework their plans and take up repair works again, so that the NH did not face such problems once again. He said the highway was breached due to floods last time, but this time it was merely overflowing of water. Traffic should not be disrupted and officials should plan to overcome this, he suggested.

An official said that the local reports of the Central Water Commission (CWC) indicated that the flood was likely to increase. A fire tender was brought to the spot to meet any eventuality. The flood water entered several villages in the surrounding areas and also Nandigama town.

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