Heavy rain throws traffic out of gear

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 30. A 19-year-old, Nahas, went missing after going to bathe in the Vamanapuram river, in Nedumangad taluk, even as heavy rain lashed the district throughout the day.

Fire Force personnel from Attingal rushed to the scene and along with the local police are continuing the search for the missing youth. According to a spokesman at the control room set up in the district Collectorate (ph: 472165), no other loss of life or damage to property has been reported from any part of the district. Control rooms have also been opened at Chirayinkeezhu (ph: 622406), Neyyattinkara (ph: 222227), Nedumangad (ph: 802424) and at Thiruvananthapuram city (ph:462006).

The District Collector has asked revenue officials to take necessary precautions at places where there is a possibility of floods.

The city too witnessed heavy rain since this morning. Following the heavy downpour and the subsequent water-logging in places such as East Fort and Thampanoor, traffic was thrown out of gear. Many by-lanes in the city became hazardous to both traffic and pedestrians as they also became water-logged.

The problem of water-logging was true to form at Thampanoor - a phenomenon that has outlived many attempts to overcome it. This time too, water was knee-deep or more at Thampanoor after the initial burst of rain. Again, the silt-clogged storm drains lived up to their reputation of being flood generators which manage to prevent themselves getting de-silted on account of sustained finger pointing by the civic administration and the railways over who should take the blame for the condition of the storm drain that passes underneath the railway yard.

It was only last year that both the Tourism Minister, Mr. E. Chandrasekharan Nair, and the then Mayor, Mr. V. Sivankutty, had announced that the storm drains at Thampanoor would be de-silted before the monsoons of 2001.

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