Cyclone exposes Vizag’s vulnerability

Cyclone exposes Vizag’s vulnerability
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Highlights

The district administration and several other government agencies haven’t learnt any lessons from the 2014 Hudhud cyclone that devastated the city disabling all the infrastructural facilities. Now the cyclone Roanu, which brought moderate rains of seven cms  exposed the vulnerability of  the city. 

Visakhapatnam: The district administration and several other government agencies haven’t learnt any lessons from the 2014 Hudhud cyclone that devastated the city disabling all the infrastructural facilities. Now the cyclone Roanu, which brought moderate rains of seven cms exposed the vulnerability of the city.

EPDCL alone incurs `1.7-cr losses

APEPDCL alone suffered a loss of Rs 1.7 crore in all the five districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari districts. Srikakulam suffered the highest loss of Rs 57 lakh, Vizianagaram Rs 41 lakh, Visakhapatnam Rs 6 lakh, East Godavari Rs 12 lakh and West Godavari Rs 40 lakh.

At MVP Zone in the city alone, 900 connections were snapped off and a 70-member special team is on the job of restoring the supply. In all, 117 teams have fanned out in the five districts to bring normalcy. A former senior engineer of EPDCL said the government should speed up the underground cable system on a war-footing if it desired to get Smart City status.

Similarly, the hard rain brought out the loopholes in the public health system of the municipal corporation. The cement lining of all the major canals has been kept pending and main drains still have salt though the Commissioner was keen on cleaning them ever since he assumed office.

The low-lying areas are getting inundated due to clogging of the drains. It was found in Gajuwaka that the drainage system was too narrow to carry the storm water and as a result the entire main road was flooded. The corporation has to remove encroachments on the drainage system and periodically remove silt so that the rain water can be carried away to the sea, said CPM city secretary Dr B Ganga Rao.

“The drainage system is top on my list and I advise people not to throw garbage into drains at least during monsoon,’’ Commissioner said. However, the rains brought cheers to the people as most of the reservoirs got good inflows. The water levels in Thandava, Kalyanapulova, Pedderu, Konam and Raiwada have been increased by one foot due to the rains.

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