Musi flood fury throws traffic out of gear in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Vehicular traffic in several parts of the capital city was thrown out of gear since Tuesday evening under the cascading effect of the closure of the Chaderghat and Moosarambagh bridges due to severe floods to river Musi. The river, which perennially remains dry except during the monsoon season, is in spate following copious rains and steady discharge of inflows from Himayath Sagar, Osman Sagar and Hussain Sagar.

As the flood water began flowing dangerously in the river, the authorities suspended movement of vehicular traffic as a precautionary measure on both the Chaderghat and Moosarambagh bridges. Consequently, commuting by road has come to grinding halt on the arteries connecting Amberpet and Malakpet. With vehicle users being forced to explore alternate routes for travel to reach their destinations, it is resulting in severe traffic congestion at several places across the city.

Confirming the closure of the two bridges for vehicular traffic, Hyderabad traffic joint CP AV Ranganath said that no traffic was being allowed between Amberpet/Kachiguda and Moosarambagh/Malakpet.

He said that the closure of the bridges had resulted in heavy traffic congestion/jam on the Dilsukhnagar-Malakpet-Chaderghat-Koti stretch and it persisted even until noon on Wednesday. The traffic top cop asked the city commuters to avoid this stretch till Thursday morning and advised them to take alternate routes.

The joint CP, traffic, assured the people that the Moosarambagh bridge would be re-opened for public as soon as the flood receded in river Musi and he was hopeful that this could happen by Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, due to the imminent flood threat, the authorities have shifted about 2,000 people from the low-lying areas of Madarsa, Shankarpet and Musanagar to make-shift rehabilitation centres.