Mangaluru (TNN): Schools and colleges in the temple town Kukke Subrahmanya declared holiday after the Kumaradhara bridge — the nearest connecting link to the temple town — submerged on Friday. This is the first time the submersible bridge went underwater this monsoon.
The bridge submerged at 6am due to good rainfall in the catchment areas in the Western Ghats. The waters receded at 4 pm.
Since Shiradi Ghat is closed, most pilgrims arrive by the Puttur-Kadaba route and it only inconvenienced devotees coming from Uppinangady side. There was 5 ft water over the submersible bridge preventing vehicular movement and police were deployed to prevent people from crossing the bridge adding through the water.
The alternate bridge, which is about 15 ft above the existing bridge, is still under construction. Until it is complete, the problem will continue during monsoons. Last year, the bridge had submerged more than seven times.
Meanwhile, the district has been receiving good rainfall. The data shows that it has been a better monsoon than last year. While the normal average is 941mm for the month of June, the district has so far received 584mm, which is 35% less than the average but is 30mm more than what the district received during the same period last year.
The total rainfall average from January to June is 1,176 mm and the district has received 900 mm, which is a shortfall of 20% but 100mm more than last year's figures. Only Puttur taluk has come close to average cumulative of 1,192 mm for the taluk receiving 1,076 mm of rainfall. This figure is 20% more than what the taluk received last year.
The least rainfall this season is in Mangaluru taluk at 700mm, which is half of the cumulative average and 30mm less than what the region received last year.
Rainfall in Mangalore taluk in the last 24 hours till 8.30am on Friday was 3.8mm. Rainfall in some major places in the district was as follows: Bantwal (1mm), Puttur (2mm), Sullia (11.8mm), Belthangady (5.6mm).
