Sullia, Aug 05: The River Kumaradhara has been over flowing by a few feet due to heavy rains. Unexpectedly, as the water level in the river rose steeply late afternoon on Monday, August 04, the Kumaradhara Bridge got submerged.
Home Guard personnel were deputed to keep a watch on the water level and stop people from commuting, at around 3.30 pm the guards saw that the water level in the river was steadily rising. They immediately alerted local educational institutions, who let the students go by 3.40 pm. But, by the time the students approached the bridge, the water level had gone up suddenly, and the bridge had gone three feet under water.
The rise in the water level trapped nearly 600 students hailing from Kadaba, Alankaru, Mardala, Bilinele, Kombaru, Sunkadakatte Kaikamba, Kulkunda, and Gundia on both the sides of the bridge. The students and the daily commuters had to wait for the river water to recede.
It is learnt that, Sullia tahsildar, Srinivas Shetty, instructed a government bus that was to leave Subrahmanya to Bangalore at 9.30 pm, to take the waiting children from Kulkunda to their village, as they were waiting for long and it was very late. But, as the bus staff refused to oblige, people got angry. Later at around 10 pm, vehicles were allowed to move on the bridge, after the water level went down.
