Officials in Telangana employed unconventional modes of transport to shift two pregnant women to safety owing to flooding in their respective areas. While one was taken to hospital on an excavator, the other was wheeled out on a railway trolley!
A young pregnant woman in Autonagar of Rajanna Sircilla district developed labour pain on Tuesday morning. However, her locality and the roads were heavily inundated following incessant rain over the past two days.
Superintendent of Police Rahul Hegde said her relatives put their heads together and came up with some solutions they thought could work. As part of their plan, a lorry was bought in but the vehicle couldn’t make its way through the water.
“There was more than three feet of water. Apart from that, there was silt too. There was a possibility of vehicles getting stuck,” said Mr Hegde.
With Plan A failing, they had to think on their feet. Finally, an excavator was pushed into service based on the suggestion of one of her relatives. That was used to carry the mother to-be and a few of her family members out of the flooded area.
After reaching a safe place, she was shifted to a police vehicle and taken to the hospital around 500 metres from her residence, said Rajana Sircilla Rural police inspector B. Upender.
In another incident on Sunday early morning, another pregnant woman from Karamkote village in Tanduru of Vikarabad district was being shifted to the District Hospital in a ‘108’ ambulance when they encountered a water body overflowing onto the road. With no option, the ambulance had to pull to a stop along with other vehicles.
“Though our staff waited, the water level did not recede. So our team approached the Railway officials and shifted the pregnant woman on a trolley, wheeling it on the rail tracks. She was admitted to a government hospital,” said P. Brahmananda Rao, chief operating officer of GVK-EMRI 108 Services.
