Mangaluru: Intense rainfall disrupts normal life, flights diverted

MANGALURU/ UDUPI: An intense spell of rainfall activity over south peninsular India under the influence of a low pressure area over southeast Arabian Sea and adjoining Kerala saw the twin districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi receive unprecedented heavy rainfall in the three hours starting from 7.45pm on Saturday, inundating several low lying areas in the districts as well as the city.
As many as three flights, including one having L Murugan, minister of state in the ministry of fisheries, from Chennai, could not land at the Mangaluru international airport and were diverted to Bengaluru.
Traffic was blocked at Dharmasthala for more than one and half hours after a minor bridge near the Nethravathi bathing ghat submerged. Many shops in the low lying areas of the city saw water entering their establishments and traffic moved at snail’s pace in the entire city due to very low visibility.
Both Udupi and DK saw 300 per cent excess rainfall than the normal rainfall for the day, recording 17.8mm and 31.8mm of rainfall in a matter of a few hours. The rain was so intense that Hebri in Karkala Taluk of Udupi District recorded 131 mm of rainfall and Ira in Bantwal Taluk and Kalanja in Belthangady Taluk, both in Dakshina Kannada District, received 107m rainfall respectively.
FLIGHTS DIVERTED:
The inclement weather forced the diversion of many flights, including one from Kuwait, to different airports from Mangaluru International Airport on Saturday late evening.
According to sources, three flights of a low-cost airline were diverted to Bengaluru. The flights were coming from Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
“All the flights were diverted to Kempegowda International Airport since it was not possible to land at MIA due to harsh weather conditions,” the source added.
Another flight- Air Indian Express flying from Kuwait –MIA- Tiruchirappalli International Airport was diverted to Cochin International Airport. An official from the flight carrier said the flight was diverted to Cochin and returned back in the morning to MIA. Later, it took off to TIA. All the arrangements were done at Cochin for the passengers. The Kuwait-MIA flight had about 107 passengers and four infants on board.
Last month, heavy fog forced the flights from Dubai and Saudi Arabia to other airports due to poor visibility.