Heavy rains cripple normal life in Odisha: Schools, Anganwadi centres closed in eight districts; Train services affected

Odisha government today declared the closure of all schools and Anganwadi centres for two days in eight districts lashed by incessant rains but asked the teachers and staff to be present at the institutes for an emergency.

East Coast Railway(ECoR) sources said heavy rains badly affected the train services as many trains, both Express and Passenger, are running behind schedule.

Heavy to very heavy rains experienced between Palasa and Vizianagaram. Sources said water from city municipal drains and nearby areas entered the Vizayanagaram station yards and tracks got submerged.

Signaling posts also got affected at many stations due to heavy water flow all night long. Water was being cleared by the railway staff at Vizayanagaram and staff were on high alert the whole night yesterday at bridges and other sensitive locations to monitor the safe movement of the trains.

ECoR CPRO  Jyoti Mishra said as of now two trains- Visakhapatanam-Brahmapur and Brahmapur- Visakhapatanam have been cancelled.

The  Bhubaneswar- Visakhapatanam Intercity Express will be terminated at Srikakakulum which will run empty up to Visakhapatanam.

The Visakhapatanam to Bhubaneswar Intercity-Express has been cancelled today, Mr.Mishra said.

Met sources said Krushnaprasad in Puri district and Chikti in Ganjam district received the highest rainfall of above 200 mm during the last 24 hours.

Krushnaprasad block in Puri received the highest rainfall of 249.4 mm rainfall followed by  203 mm rainfall in the Chikti block in the Ganjam district.

As many as 48 blocks in the state received rainfall between 100 mm to 200 mm rainfall.

The district collectors of  Cuttack, Ganjam, Gajapati, Bhadrak, Dhenkanal, Puri, Khordha and Jajpur have declared holiday for all the schools and Anganwadi centres due to the heavy rainfall.

Several low lying areas in the state reported inundated and vehicular movement has been severely affected putting the commuters into lot of hardship .

Report reaching the state capital said rain waters flowing one to two feet above the road at several places in southern Odisha disrupting the communication badly.

Special Relief Commissioner(SRC) office sources ruled out any possibility of floods due to the rains in the state.

However, the district collectors have been alerted to take all possible measures to meet the situation arising out of the heavy rains.

If necessary, the collectors were asked to evacuate the people from the low lying areas and waterlogging areas to safer places.

Official sources said all the 30 districts in the state received rainfall during the last 24 hours.

As many as five districts received rainfall above 100 MM while eight districts reported rainfall between 40 mm to 100 mm rainfall and eleven districts received rainfall between 10 mm to 40 mm in the past 24  hours.

Met sources said heavy rain will lash the state for the next 48 hours.