News, HYDERABAD: Heavy rains in city since Tuesday night have thrown normal life out of gear as water entered low-lying areas creating huge traffic blocks at most of the important locations and junctions and forcing people to vacate their houses.

The usually dry Musi river is now in spate due to unrelenting rain for the past few days.This resulted in inundation of areas on the river bank such as Purana Pul, Chaderghat, Dabeerpura, Amberpet and Uppal. The river originates in the Anantagiri Hills near Vikarabad and flows through vast stretches of Hyderabad.

Irrigation officials opened eight flood-gates of the Musi project in Nalgonda to let out water downstream. The strong current of the river submerged several roadways paralysing the movement of transport. “Currently the river is getting an inflow of 33,000 cusecs. And the level of water is close to 644 feet. It is exceptionally high for the river,” said AE Ramesh, an official of the irrigation department.

Two people lost their lives in separate rain-related incidents in the city . Rathlavath Shankar, 36, slipped into Kotha Cheruvu at Alwal and drowned while trying to kill a snake. In another incident, electrician B Srinivas, 35, died of electrocution, while trying to drain out water from an electric pump at Nizampet.

As a result of the heavy rains, roads caved in at two different places bringing traffic to a crawl. The first incident happened on the NTR Marg and the second at the Neredmet Railway Gate.

Several roads got washed away in Rangareddy district forcing officials to declare a holiday for educational institutions. And, if predictions of the Met department are anything to go by, rains would continue for the next three days with similar intensity.

“These rains will continue to pound the city for the next three days owing to a cyclonic formation over the west-central Bay of Bengal,” Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist, Skymet Weather Forecasting Services, told media. The rain that began at 10 30 pm on Tuesday inundated many areas with Qutbullapur receiving the highest rainfall of 164.25 mm, followed by Malkajgiri (90.75 mm) and Madhapur (74.25 mm).

Residents of Habsiguda said the Tuesday night downpour turned the main carriageways into rivulets.”We were forced to rush out as water entered our homes with great ferocity,” said TL Menon, a resident of Road No 8 in Habsiguda.

Similar situation was reported from Kukatpally , Miyapur, Nizampet, Qutbullapur, Moosapet, Begumpet, Alwal and other major residential and commercial suburbs of the city .