Incessant rains trigger floods, landslides in Arunachal Pradesh

Itanagar: Incessant rains in the past couple of days have triggered floods and landslides in several districts of Arunachal Pradesh, disrupting road communication and throwing normal life out of gear. PWD (Highway) chief engineer Hage Appa said on Sunday that landslides triggered by heavy rains on 15 August disrupted surface communication between Itanagar and Naharlagun and washed away road and culverts at sinking zone near Karsingsa. [caption id=“attachment_1667909” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] The road communication between Banderdewa and Itanagar via Karsingsa remained disrupted for the third day today as a result. The road currently is closed for all types of vehicles, he said in a release. The district administration has asked the people to use Nirjuli-Doimukh-Harmuty road and Itanagar-Hollongi road to take NH-52 in Assam as the road restoration work between Naharlagun and Banderdewa may take two days to complete. The Kimin-Ziro road too is blocked since Thursday due to massive landslides, some of which have been cleared, he said. Landslides have also occurred at Chandranagar, Nitivihar and many sectors in the capital complex here. Two children of a family were killed and another boy injured when a retention wall of BSNL fell over their dwelling at C Sector area here during landslide on the night of 15 August. Supply of drinking water in Itanagar and Naharlagun, including Nirjuli has been disrupted because of damage to water supply pipelines, Appa said, adding the main water supply pipeline of Donyi Polo School was damaged last night. The PHED department is working round-the-clock to repair the damaged pipe lines and restore water supply which may take 3-4 days, department sources said. The flood situation in worst affected Lohit district remained grim as a fresh wave of flood submerged agricultural land and human habitation in the district. An official report from the district said the water level of Lohit and Digaru rivers was above the danger mark and ferry services at Alubari had been suspended. The Tezu-Parasuramkund road blocked for past few days due to landslips and floods, however, re-opened yesterday for small and light vehicles. PTI