Heavy rains and overflowing reservoirs turned Hyderabad’s bustling Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) into a watery nightmare early Saturday, trapping dozens of passengers as Musi River floods swept through the Telangana capital.
Disaster Response Force teams from the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), police, and fire services jumped into action around midnight. They pulled passengers to safety after floodwaters surged from the Musi River, one of India’s most notorious waterways during monsoons. The rapid rise came from massive water releases from the Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar reservoirs, which authorities opened to handle inflows from days of relentless downpours.
Water quickly swallowed the two bridges at MGBS, Asia’s largest bus stations, and flooded the platforms. Officials halted all bus services at the facility and launched a full-scale rescue. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy ordered teams to prioritize getting everyone out safely amid the chaos.
The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) rerouted buses heading to MGBS from across Telangana and neighboring Andhra Pradesh to other city spots, easing the logjam for travelers caught in the Hyderabad floods.
This marked an unprecedented flood at MGBS, where water levels hit heights not seen in recent memory. The Musi River, cutting right through the heart of Hyderabad, turned dangerous, swamping nearby neighborhoods. Rescuers moved about 1,000 people from areas like Shankar Nagar, Vinayaka Veedhi, Moosa Nagar, Padma Nagar, and Chaderghat to relief camps as homes filled with murky water.
The flooding wrecked key infrastructure too. Chaderghat causeway vanished under the deluge, while water poured over the closed old bridge at Moosarambagh. A new high-level bridge under construction nearby took a hit—iron rods and materials floated away, and floodwaters invaded homes in Ambedkar Nagar.
Behind the surge: Heavy rains upstream filled the Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar reservoirs on Hyderabad’s outskirts. Officials flung open 24 gates, pushing discharge to 35,000 cusecs by late Friday. “The Musi hasn’t flowed like this in years,” one official noted, warning that ongoing rains could push levels even higher.
For context, the 1908 Musi floods devastated Hyderabad, claiming around 15,000 lives and reshaping the city. Back then, Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan called in engineer M. Visvesvaraya to build those very reservoirs—Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar—to tame future floods. Now, more than a century later, they’re working overtime to protect the growing metropolis from another tragedy.
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