Agartala: An hour long heavy shower recorded 157 mm inundated the capital city on Thursday afternoon left the commercial places, sizable number of vehicles including motorbikes and a number of ATMs into waterlogged.
Hundreds of people were stuck at entry points of the city, as no roads were movable due to water. The water hit the ministers’ quarters in the heart of the city and police stations. However, there is no report of any causality so far.
According to a report, water entered into the ATM volts in SBI Melarmath caused damage to a few lakh of rupees. Several offices in the city, shops and business establishments have lost their valuable documents.
Agartala has not seen such a heavy amount of rainfall in an hour in recent years that left the life out of gear.
Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha reviewed the water logging situation in the city with the city administration and directed to find out the reason why the situation turned worse today.
Sources said, several water evacuating pumps were not working properly that triggered flash floods in the city.
The IMD Agartala officials said, “About 38 mm rainfall was recorded in the airport observatory between 8.30 am and 5.30 am. However, till 3.30 pm rainfall was negligible in the city. The heavy rain started around 3.30 and continued till 5 pm, which registered 157 mm.”
The officials however, issued a warning of isolated heavy rainfall in Tripura on Friday.
While predicting onset of monsoon in the end of May – days ahead of the schedule, IMD Agartala station In-charge N Kulkarni said, “Last three years Tripura had been recorded around 60 percent deficit rainfall in pre-moon season, but this year so far it reduced to 14 percent due heavy push of moisture in Northeast after Cyclone Asani was weakened into a depression last week.”
According to him, high intensity rainfall was the reason for landslides and flash floods in the southern part of Northeast that cut off Barak Valley, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur by road for last few days.
