Heavy rains paralyse normal life

Tirupati: Heavy rains lashed the temple town on Tuesday affecting normal life. The rains which were due to depression in Bay of Bengal caused inconvenience to scores of pilgrims.
Heavy rains, which started late on Tuesday continued till Wednesday morning, while intermittent rains continued throughout the day. Kapilatheertham and Malavanigundam falls that were dried up due to dry spell came to life and were in full spate due to heavy rains in Tirumala hills. People from the city, braving intermittent rains turned up in good number at Kapilatheertham to have glimpse of captivating view of the cascading waterfall in full spate while many women offered harathi and pasupu-kumkuma at the Kapilatheertham temple tank.
Low lying areas in the city were inundated forcing the people to wade through knee deep waters in several colonies. Corporation authorities kept their field level sanitation and health staff on full alert against clogging of drains and canals. In Tirumala, pilgrims were panicked after the electric cable wires caught fire due to short circuit near the temple. The burning cable emitting thick smoke enveloped the temple area and electrical staff swung into the action restored power supply after replacing the damaged cables.
The heavy rains caused lot of inconvenience to the pilgrims in Tirumala, which is witnessing heavy rush due to summer holidays.
The rain water entered into the temple forcing the TTD authorities to pump out the water.
Meanwhile, Tirupati urban recorded 43 mm rainfall, while rural registered 50 mm rainfall. According to offcial source, Varadayapalem recorded highest rainfall of 110 mm with the mandals in eastern part, which is adjacent to sea bore the brunt of the depression. Except five mandals in the district, all the mandal received rains. Meanwhile, Municipal Corporation of Tirupati commissioner V Vinay Chand on Wednesday visited some of the 15 rain-hit localities in the city and also interacted with the residents.