Vijayawada: Heavy rains in Rayalaseema since two days damaged rail routes and roads in Kadapa, Chittoor, Nellore and Ananthapur districts, some bridges have collapsed. Chennai to Bombay train route was severely damaged between Rajampeta and Kadapa stations near Nandaluru, two kms of railway track washed away.

Railway authorities cancelled trains from Chennai to Bombay route, some trains were partially running in a diverted route. Railway track damaged in Nellore district near Padugupadu railway station and the flood water is touching the tracks. Due to floods railway authorities cancelled trains from Chennai to Howrah route on Sunday onwards.

Several trains were cancelled or diverted while hundreds of vehicles were stranded on Sunday as the main road and rail routes in Andhra Pradesh remained cut off due to floods. Railway authorities announced cancellation of 42 trains on the Chennai to Vijayawada grand trunk route.  According to SCR the trains were cancelled due to heavy inflow of water between Nellore – Padugupadu section of Vijayawada Division and Razampet – Nandaluru of Guntakal Division.

The cancelled trains include Visakhapatnam-Kadapa, Tirupati-Hazrat Nizamuddin, Chennai Central-CST Mumbai, Tirupati-Nizamabad, Chittoor-Kacheguda, Chennai Central-LTT Mumbai, Tirupati-Kolhapur, Gudur – Secunderabad, Vijayawada-Chennai Central, Kakinada Town-Tirupati, Adilabad- H. S. Nanded, Lingampalli-Tirupati, Hyderabad-Tambaram, Hyderabad-Chennai Central, Secunderabad-Gudur, Secunderabad-Tirupati and Tirupati-Adilabad.

The floods due to overflowing Somasila reservoir damaged the Chennai-Kolkata National Highway-16 in Nellore district. The highway had to be closed down for traffic following a heavy breach of road at Padugupadu near Nellore town. The traffic between Nellore and Vijayawada has been suspended, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded for five kilometers on either side. Officials said traffic on one side was restored in the afternoon.

Vehicles from Tirupati to Srikalhasti were diverted at Tottembedu leading to huge traffic jam on the national highway. Police were advising motorists to divert their vehicles through Kadapa, Pamuru and Darsi. Hundreds of passengers were stuck in the Nellore bus station due to bus services cancellation. Hundreds of train and bus passengers were also stranded in the flood hit Chittoor, Kadapa and Anantapur districts.

There was no respite for people in temple town of Tirupati as several residential areas remained inundated. Heavy rains and floods have so far claimed 24 lives in the four districts while 17 people went missing. Kadapa district has accounted for 13 deaths while seven deaths were reported from Anantapur and four from Chittoor.

According to officials, nearly 24 lakh people were affected by the floods. A total of 1,316 villages were hit by the heavy rains. The rains and floods damaged 1,549 houses. The authorities evacuated nearly 21K people and set up 243 relief camps.