Tamil Nadu in the eye of another storm

Traffic crawled bumper to bumper along the middle lane on Old Mahabalipuram Road, a multilane toll road in Chennai, as rainwater flooded the outer lanes on Sunday afternoon. Occasionally, SUVs sped through, throwing a rooster tail of slushy water, enraging other road users.

The scene was the same elsewhere on the East Coast Road, Velachery Road, Guindy, Anna Nagar, Ambattur or North Chennai – flooded roads, slow moving traffic and people wading in knee-deep water.

The few vehicles that braved the rains were forced to slow down to a crawl by water overflowing from choked drains and roads shorn off their black topping, leaving potholed, gravelly surfaces.

Teams of municipal corporation workers were seen labouring around open drains, trying to clear blocks or demolishing concrete road medians that prevented the flow of rainwater.

Schools and colleges will remain closed on Monday and exams have been postponed.

Ministers and senior officials are visiting flooded areas to oversee relief operations.

The Adyar and the Cooum rivers are flooded and the authorities have blocked the causeway across the Adyar near KK Nagar as the river threatens to overflow onto the road.

Meanwhile, commuters who need to go out on weekends found cab and auto rickshaw fares have shot up multiple times.

With the Met department predicting heavy rainfall over the next two days, the situation in Chennai is bound to get worse. But then to the city’s residents, it is a ‘normal’ situation during the monsoons.

A number of IT companies have declared holiday on Monday as the weather forecast indicates more heavy rains, according to a Nasscom official.

According to sources in the know, Cognizant Technology Solutions has declared a holiday in Chennai for those on regular shift but those handling ‘critical deliverables’ or providing continuous support to clients will be working.

KV Kanakambaram, President, Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association, said small scale units have not been able to operate normally in the last two-three days. If the rains continue more units will be closed as workers are not able to commute, power is not available or some of the inner roads are flooded.

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