Tirupathi: Heavy rains couple with cold winds has been left pilgrims visiting the temple town of Tirumala subject to untold hardships. Officials of TTD and Chittoor district have been struggling to bring normalcy following a trail of devastation left due to the recent heavy rains. But, the heavy rains lashing the temple town and other parts of the district since last night has brought the efforts of the official machinery to a ground halt.

The latest rains made pilgrims remained in their cottages as they were not able to venture out to enter into the queue lines since morning. Water logging at several places in the temple town too have made pilgrims not able to make to the morning schedule of Lord Balaji’s darshan.

Meanwhile, clearing of debris due to landslides on Ghat Road No. 2 has come to a grind halt as incessant rains disrupted the works. And, several colonies in Tirupathi town have been once against inundated due to water logging. Following the Swarnamukhi River flowing to its full capacity, officials have lifted all the gates of the dams located in Tiurmala to release water downstream. While road leading to Chandragiri has been cut off, and fresh incidents of land slide has been reported from the Tirumala Ghat Road.