Life continued to be affected in Kodagu owing to heavy rains in the district for the past few days and with no signs of respite on Thursday.
Many places, including Bhagamandala, have been marooned due to overflowing river and connectivity to parts of the district has been badly affected due to landslips. While the stretch of highway from Makuta to Perambadi has been closed for a month due to erosion necessitating major repair works, another road connecting Gonikoppa to Mysuru too was out of bounds for vehicles following the collapse of a temporary bride near Thitimathi, on Thursday.
Traffic movement within the district and the link to Periyapatna and Mysuru was affected due to the bridge collapse and local people were forced to walk to Majjigehalla, Devamachi, Balumani etc. due to disruption in transportation.
Deputy Commissioner of Kodagu, Srividya, said they have deployed inflatable boats at Bhagamandala, Napoklu and other places to ferry people as the places are flooded due to incessant rains and overflowing rivers.
Meanwhile, 27 personnel from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reached Kodagu on Wednesday night and were working to salvage the situation and the Deputy Commissioner said that they are assisting the district administration. In view of the heavy rains, schools and colleges remained closed in Kodagu on Thursday.
A release from the meteorological department said Bhagamandala received 195 mm of rainfall in the 24-hour period ending 8.30 a.m. on Thursday, Sampaji received 156 mm, Napoklu – 131 mm, Madikeri, 111.80 mm of rainfall. The average rainfall for the district was 85.06 mm for Thursday morning and though relatively less compared to Wednesday (102.68 mm), portions of southern Kodagu continued to bear the brunt of heavy rains.
Virajpet received 94.20 mm of rainfall and Srimangala 88.40 mm. Other places in Kodagu where the rainfall was heavy included Hudikeri (98.50 mm) and Ponnampet (80.20 mm).
The cumulative rainfall in the district since January is 1034.44 mm as against 554.95 mm of rainfall during the corresponding period last year.
Meanwhile, Appachu Ranjan, MLA, who inspected rain-affected areas on Thursday sought Rs.100 crore from the government to take up relief works, including repair of damaged roads. He inspected many houses that had developed cracks in residential areas like Chamundeshwarinagar, Mangaladevi Nagar, Dechooru etc. He said besides infrastructure there was considerable damage to crops.
K.G.Bopaiah, MLA, said it was imperative for the State to create Road Development Fund exclusively for Kodagu in view of road damage due to heavy rains being experienced every year.