A two-member team from the Central government reached Tirupati on December 14 (Thursday) to assess the crop loss that occurred due to Cyclone Michaung in the coastal constituencies of Tirupati district.
Meena Hooda, Assistant Director of the Union Ministry of Power and Rakesh Kumar, Superintending Engineer, Union Ministry of Roads and Highways, accompanied by the district officials of various departments, inspected the fields where crops were damaged. Gudur MLA and former bureaucrat V. Varaprasad also accompanied the team.
The district administration explained to the team that nearly 2,450 houses were blown away by the winds or damaged due to flood water. As many as 121 substations and 2,218 current poles were damaged in 496 villages.
According to irrigation officials, about 478 km of R&B roads, 132 km of panchayat roads, and 56 municipal roads were damaged, and 618 water bodies developed breaches.
Paddy crops on over 10,000 hectares and horticultural crops on 665 hectares have taken the hit, the team was told. The fishermen lost nearly 500 boats and fishing nets due to the cyclone.
The team visited Vonuguntapalem-Rudravaram road in Kota mandal and inspected the damage sustained to the electricity infrastructure such as 133 kv substation, electricity poles and transformers at Vidyanagar.
The members inspected the Swarnamukhi river bridge that developed breaches near Balireddypalem in Vakadu mandal, which was visited by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy recently.
