Efforts are under way to remove the boats stuck near the gates of the Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada on Saturday. | Photo Credit: G.N. RAO Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana visited some flood-affected areas in the city, including Bose Nagar, Kandrika and Journalist Colony, on Saturday (September 14) and inspected the sanitation works under way. He saw the pumping out of stagnant floodwater at the Journalist Colony. Addressing media persons later, Mr. Narayana said floodwater had almost completely receded in the city and the clean-up works were going on in full swing. The sludge that piled up in houses was being removed with the help of fire .tenders Normalcy would return in all the 32 flood-hit divisions by September 15 (Sunday). Desilting of drains was progressing at a brisk pace. The officials concerned were instructed to do enumeration again in areas where the residents claimed to be left out, he added.Boats at barrageEfforts to retrieve three boats from the Prakasam barrage here continued on Saturday but in vain. One of them had earlier sunk into the river and two were floating and entangled. Another two small ones were believed to be swept away downstream. A total of five boats, said to weigh up to 50 metric tons each, crashed into Gate Number 69 of the barrage on September 1 following extremely heavy rain in the catchment area of the Krishna river.Officials have since been striving to remove them but there has so far been no positive result. Workers have tried to break the boats using gas cutters in order to take them out, and also attempted to lift them using cranes. A team of experts from Kakinada has been roped in to salvage the boats. Published – September 14, 2024 08:42 pm IST