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IANS

HYDERABAD TORRENTIAL rains continued to batter coastal Andhra Pradesh on Sunday, claiming 22 lives, inundating hundreds of villages, paralysing road and rail traffic and damaging crops.

The rains triggered by northeast monsoon and Cyclone Nilam, which crossed the coast near Chennai on Wednesday, have so far killed 22 people, said T Radha, commissioner, disaster management.

About 60,000 people from affected areas were shifted to 86 relief camps. Incessant rains in eight districts of Andhra Pradesh have damaged 480 houses completely and 766 houses partially. Standing crops in over 250,000 hectares were also damaged.

In East Godavari district, one of the worst-hit by flash floods, seven deaths were reported while about 30,000 people were shifted to relief camps.

Over 500 villages in the district were marooned due to overflowing rivulets, tanks, streams and reservoirs. As many as 72 tanks were breached in the coastal district, inundating dozens of villages, which were without electricity.

In Visakhapatnam district, passengers of two buses were stranded in flood waters in a stream. Authorities have sought help from the Navy to rescue the passengers.

East Godavari, West Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts were the worst hit by the rains, which left a trail of destruction and brought road and rail services to a halt.

The railways suspended all train services between coastal city of Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at railway stations as train movement was thrown out of gear between Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam — the two major rail transit hubs in coastal Andhra Pradesh.

The railways have either cancelled or diverted trains due to flooding of tracks in East Godavari, West Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts, officials said.

Trains between Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and other cities in south India and the destinations in Orissa and West Bengal were also hit.

Several trains from Howrah, Bhubaneswar and other destinations were running several hours late and stranded in affected areas.